When a newsgroup is created /Served, the local system keeps a record of item numbers and selected information about each item (principally information used to construct the item index display). This information is updated by connecting to the server every time a Skim/Served is performed. When a user reads an article from a served newsgroup, News retrieves the text of the item from the server and displays it for the user. By default, News then retains the text locally for 2 days, and uses this local copy when other users read the item at a later time. (This can be customized by using the /Cache qualifier to Create Newsgroup and Set Newsgroup.) Because of the overhead incurred during the Skim/Served, it is not efficient to have more than a few served newsgroups on a system. If you cannot retain most newsgroups locally due to space constraints, consider shortening the item retention time for locally held groups, particularly large groups, or paring down your feed, and perhaps providing access to newsgroups you don't carry by using News in different sessions as a local reader or as a diskless client to the remote server. While this is less convenient than having all groups available in one session, it is much more efficient than having a large number of individual served groups.
Finally, remember that at present the NNTP server provided with News cannot serve the text of items from a remote newsgroup to its clients. It will present the information which is available locally, but will not query the remote server for items. Of course, anyone with some spare time and the inclination to do so is welcome to add this capability to the ANU News server.
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