How do I access BBS systems on the Internet? -------------------------------------------- Written 3/11 Updated 1/19 Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) have been around long before the Internet. Traditional BBS systems that were "dial-up" based were accessed by dialing them directly with your analog telephone modem. This meant you used a "terminal program" to access these BBS systems. There were many terminal program out there in the dial-up BBS heyday. Specific examples included Telix, Qmodem and ProComm. But when BBSes moved to Telnet, this changed. This means you can now access these BBS programs via your computer on the Internet. Windows and Unix based operating systems (including Linux and Mac OS X) have built-in Telnet clients. This means you can access these BBS systems directly from your computer without any new software. However, there are several FREE third-party Telnet applications you can use to access these systems. We'll talk about those in a moment. Windows Windows 7, 8/8.1 and 10 Based Systems: By default, Windows Vista and Windows 7 do not install the Telnet client. You can install it by following these steps: 1. Click Start then select Control Panel. 2. Select Programs and Features. 3. Select Turn Windows features on or off. 4. Select the Telnet Client option. 5. Click OK. 6. A dialog box will appear to confirm installation. The telnet command should now be available. You can now use the Command Line commands as described above. In order to automatically run these from your browser, you may also need to run the Telnet Registry Tweak Utility as described above, or use the alternate SyncTerm Telnet Client method for Firefox. Note: There are other telnet clients out there in addition to SyncTerm. These include: mTelnet (http://www.telnetbbsguide.com/mtelb12.zip), SyncTerm (http://syncterm.bbsdev.net) PuTTY (http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html), NetTerm (http://www.securenetterm.com/html/downloads.html) and ZOC (http://www.emtec.com/download.html). Windows based Systems: If you run Windows, Telnet is a built-in application that in most cases is already available and ready to go. If you want, you can either go to a "command prompt" and run the following command syntax, or you can use the Start -> Run menu to run the following command syntax: Command Line: Telnet bbsaddresshere (example: telnet bbs.dmine.net) or Telnet (ip address here) (example: telnet 127.0.0.1) There are some BBS systems that do not use the default port (port 23). In that case, you will need to type it in manually. Telnet bbsaddresshere port (example: bbs.dmine.net 24) Vista, Windows 7/8 users: You will need to "turn on" the Telnet client in Windows before you can use it. It's there, just need to activate it. Accessing Telnet BBSes Via Your Web Browser: If you use the Telnet BBS Guide, you will notice we provide telnet links to each BBS we list on here. However with recent Windows upgrades, you will notice that these may no longer work. Here's how you can get them to work again. Internet Explorer Users (IE 7 and higher): You will need to "Turn on" the ability to use Telnet. Download and unzip the Telnet Registry Tweak Utility (http://www.telnetbbsguide.com/ie7_telnet.zip) to update your registry file to provide the ability to turn the ability for you to click on a Telnet link on our website. Unzip the "ie7_telnet.reg" file to the desktop. Double click on it. Click "Yes" to confirm. Google Chrome Users: Use the above Telnet Registry Tweak Utility. Firefox Users: You will also need to run this Telnet Registry Tweak Utility in order to use Firefox's capability to run the internal Telnet application. Once you do so, within Firefox: Go to Tools -> Options. Click on the Applications tab. Scroll down to "Telnet". Under the Action header, click on the tab that says "Always Ask. Then click on "Use Internet Shortcut Shell Extension". As an alternative to using the Registry Tweak, you can download and install SyncTerm (http://syncterm.bbsdev.net) as a FREE third-party telnet client. Then you can tell Firefox to use SyncTerm as your Telnet application client within Firefox. That way when you click on a Telnet link on the Telnet BBS Guide, SyncTerm will start and will automatically connect you to the BBS you clicked on. Within Firefox: Go to Tools -> Options. Click on the Applications tab. Scroll down to "Telnet". Under the Action header, click on the tab that says "Always Ask. Then select Other. Then click on Browse. Find where you installed Syncterm.Exe (most likely under C:\Program files\Syncterm\Syncterm.exe). Then Firefox will use Syncterm as the default Telnet client application. Mac OS X Mac users can use SyncTerm as described above. You may also be able to use the command line interface.