Editing Usenet newsgroup (section)

==Distribution==
{{anchor|How newsgroups work}}
Transmission within and at the bounds of the network uses the [[Network News Transfer Protocol]] (NNTP) (Internet standard RFC 3977 of 2006, updating RFC 977 of 1986).

Newsgroup servers are hosted by various organizations and institutions. Most [[Internet service providers]] host their own [[news server]]s, or rent access to one, for their subscribers. There are also a number of companies who sell access to premium news servers.

Every host of a news server maintains agreements with other nearby news servers to synchronize regularly. In this way news servers form a [[redundancy (engineering)|redundant]] network. When a user posts to one news server, the post is stored locally. That server then shares posts with the servers that are connected to it for those newsgroups they both carry. Those servers do likewise, propagating the posts through the network. For newsgroups that are not widely carried, sometimes a carrier group is used for [[crossposting]] to aid distribution. This is typically only useful for groups that have been removed or newer ''alt.*'' groups. Crossposts between hierarchies, outside of the Big 8 and ''alt.*'' hierarchies, are prone to failure.