Suggestions for the first-time BBS dialer

If you are not dialing in to a local BBS (Bulletin Board System), you have no idea what you are missing. BBSes can be a video game aficionado’s delight with plenty of information being traded to help you get through that particularly nasty level or flick that joystick the right way at the arcade. (And you can often download some choice Playboy calendar pages in ASCII. That’ll get your dot matrix printer totally hot).

Here are few suggestions for first-time BBS users:

• Find local numbers. This will be a difficult step since most numbers are not listed in the phone book. Your best chance is to go to your local computer store or ask a technology-savvy friend at the arcade. You may even need to check the bulletin boards (as in peg boards) a the local tech school for a list. Remember, if you are calling a long distance number, you will be charged fees by Ma Bell. We’re still looking for a decent list of 800-number BBSes, but there aren’t very many (yet). Once you get into a local BBS, chances are pretty good it will have a list of other local BBSes for you to call. While there are hundreds across the USA, there are likely a few dozen in the nearest city and maybe even a couple in your area code.
• Keep your phone tightly coupled in the modem. Any noise leaking into the phone can slow down your signal. If you are lucky enough to afford one of those fancy Hayes Smartmodems, then you obviously don’t need to worry about that. Tell your little sister not to pick up for a while, either, since that will pretty much break your connection to the BBS.
• Dial the right number. The angry voice on the other end will indicate you got it wrong. Beeps and other weird noises usually mean you got it right.
• Check your settings. Even if you dial in, if your parity or echo is wrong you’ll get kicked off and you’ll have to try again. It can take many tries before you get it right.
• Check your baud. You might have the latest lightning-fast 1200 baud modem but if the BBS won’t yet support it, you might need to continue using your 300 baud modem. Sometimes you can find a list of BBSes and the appropriate baud for each.
• Be patient. It can take many, many tries before you get logged into the BBS. Also, the line(s) connecting to the BBS might be busy. Once you are connected…
• Get to know your SysOp (System Operator aka God). That will be the person who can help you the most and will kick you out if you leave too many mean electronic mail messages. Often they will post an electronic message with rules for the site as well as key commands. You’ll often see that when you are first connected to the BBS.
• Learn the bulletin board’s commands. These can be very different between bulletin boards.
• Dial in early in the morning. Many BBSes still use only one phone line so get in early so you can read and let your computer download that massive 10K ASCII file all morning. (Believe me, staring at that screen of dots is not much fun). There is often a time limit for how long you can stay connected, especially for BBSes with only one or two lines.
• Be polite to your fellow BBSers. Those electronic mail messages you leave for your friends can be read by everyone (especially the SYSOP), so keep it fairly clean. The SysOp is also keeping a computer file (also referred to as a log) of all keystrokes to the BBS and he can block your phone number from being able to dial in.
• Offer as much as you use. If you are only taking from a BBS and not contributing any useful information, you may anger the other people who dial in. Besides, it’s just the polite thing to do.

For those who are a bit more malicious, many BBSes do have back doors. I’ll save that for a future article.

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Read [Art of Hacking] Also Read [BBS List] Also Read [SalonAl] Site [IMG2TXT]

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