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Ucache is a Usenet-to-web gateway. In particular, we provide web access to the alt.binaries.* hierarchy of Usenet newsgroups (= topical categories), and the pictures and videos posted there.
While Usenet access has long been available through many Internet service providers, viewing and downloading of Usenet posts with multimedia content has been notoriously cumbersome. When Usenet was conceived in 1979 it was designed for textual messages only, with multimedia attachments (or “binaries”) being an afterthought. And even though today the bulk of Usenet traffic is pictures and videos, the underlying communication protocol still follows the 29 year old design. This is why Usenet has become known for its user-unfriendliness, and has largely escaped the radar of mainstream media.
Ucache solves this problem by an automated system that harvests the global Usenet stream of posts, and indexes it for web access. The Ucache service provides a quick and easy way to achieve what would normally take special software and often a lot of patience. The success of this approach is confirmed by the loyalty of our users—some of whom have stayed as paid members throughout the existence of this service.
The word Ucache (pronounced [yoo-kash]) is a contraction from “Usenet Cache”. In computer science, a cache is a temporary storage area where frequently accessed data can be stored for rapid access. This is pretty much what we do for Usenet traffic. But in addition to caching it, we also index it to facilitate viewing using any standard web browser, thereby executing our gateway function.
In legal terms, Ucache is a service provider offering access to a medium for transitory communications. We do not own, grant licenses to, or charge for any part of the content we carry. Our membership fee covers the use of our server resources, bandwidth, software, and customer support. In Internet terminology, we provide Usenet access.
Ucache does not provide means for its users to post anything to Usenet. We are a unidirectional gateway, providing downstream access (view/download) only. All content accessible through this web site originates elsewhere. This also guarantees that when accessing Usenet through this web site there is no risk of any information about you ever leaking to Usenet at large.
Ucache does not archive Usenet traffic. All Usenet posts accessible through this web site, including their attached pictures and videos, will eventually expire to be replaced by newer posts, as per Usenet social contract.
Internet service providers in general, and Ucache in particular, can not take responsibility for the content appearing on the global Usenet stream. The sheer volume of traffic alone makes any kind of human performed selection and approval physically impossible. However, should the need arise, instructions are provided for reporting abuse to the originating ISP of any particular post.
At any given moment the Ucache index contains between half a million to one million posts. We process over a terabyte of data per day, one new image or video every couple of seconds—day and night, seven days a week. This is achieved by a cluster of server computers running in parallel, each specializing in some part of the task and synchronizing its operation with the others.
The people behind Ucache have been involved with Usenet (and Internet) since mid 1980s. While this web site, in comparison, is a recent development, it has been setup with a long term perspective. We hope you join us as a member and stay around to experience our growth and the continued refinements to this service.
18 U.S.C. 2257 Compliance Statement