1st time poster. I’ve just read through The Ultimate Introductory Guide and Bluto’s guide but am definitely a noob to Usenet. I have 2 noob questions. First, are user-names unique in Usenet? For instance, when Bluto and Harmy mention the user Obi-Have Kenobi having the correct files, is it possible to get files from a DIFFERENT Obi-Have Kenobi on Usenet, or would that user ID generally be considered a reliable source? Second, since Bluto’s guide states that a newsreader such as Newshosting automatically does checksum checks, is it not necessary to also run a checksum on your own? OR is it that the newsreader does a checksum to ensure the file FIDELITY with the download source, and the independent checksum we do on our end compared to the checksum listed is to ensure AUTHENTICITY?

Thank you guys in advance!