Did you know that you can visit the Armageddon BBS using the Terminal app that is included with every version of Mac OS X? This tutorial will explain to you exactly how to adjust OS X"s Terminal settings so that you can do it. Even if you use another operating system -- or OS -- other than Mac OS X, you can still learn something from this tutorial, which will help you to have better telnet experiences.
Only a few years ago, using the built-in Mac OS X Terminal app to visit BBSes was not a very nice affair. Try as I might, and no matter what settings I used, I couldn"t get the Terminal app to properly display PC-ANSI characters and colors on my computer. Thankfully, I recently discovered that Apple has apparently taken some steps to improve the user experience in this regard. However, even with those improvements, visiting a BBS was still not quite up to par. Thus, this tutorial.
The first thing that we need to do is to launch the Terminal app. You will find it in the "Utilities" folder in your main "Applications" folder on your startup drive. In other words, here:
/Applications/Utilities/Terminal
Once you launch it, and since you may be using it a lot in the future, you may want to add it to your Dock at the bottom of your screen. To do that, right-click or control-click the Terminal app"s icon in your Dock, and then select "Options", following by "Keep in Dock" in the submenu. That"s it. Now the Terminal app will remain in your Dock until you undo what you just did.
Now, before I tell you exactly how to visit the Armageddon BBS using the Terminal app, we are going to pretty up the Terminal"s colors, make sure that you are using the right terminal emulation, and make sure that the window size is correct so that you see everything properly on the Armageddon BBS, as well as on other BBSes.
Please note that these instructions are based on the appearance of the Terminal app in Mac OS X 10.10.2, or Yosemite. If you are using an older version of Mac OS X, the settings windows may possibly look a little different, but probably not by much.
Now that you have launched the Terminal app by double-clicking its icon in the "Utilities" folder, or by clicking it once in the Dock, you should have a Terminal window in front of you. If not, select "New Window" under the "Shell" menu.
Let"s begin by adjusting the prompt at the bottom of the Terminal window, and colorizing certain aspects of it. To do this, we will be using Mac OS X"s built-in editor called "nano".
In the Terminal window, use your keyboard to type the following. This will open the profile which is currently in use:
nano .profile
Once the nano editor window has opened, using your mouse or trackpad, select the FOUR lines of text that you see between the top and bottom dashes below:
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export PS1="\[\033[36m\]\u\[\033[m\]@\[\033[32m\]\h:\[\033[33;1m\]\w\[\033[m\]\$ "
export CLICOLOR=1
export LSCOLORS=ExFxBxDxCxegedabagacad
alias ls="ls -GFh"
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To reiterate, you should see only FOUR lines above. The first long line ends with: $ "
The first line may possibly be wrapped on your screen to make it look as if there are five lines, but there are really only four lines to enter into the Terminal app. That string that ends with $ " should be a part of the first line that you are going to copy and paste into your Terminal window.
Now use command-c -- that is, hold down the "command" key while you simultaneously type the letter "c" -- to copy the first line above -- or all four lines at once if you are able to -- into your computer"s pasteboard.
Next, switch over to the open Terminal window where the nano editor has been opened. You will know that you are in the right place, because you will see a few rows of commands at the bottom of your screen.
Now, using your keyboard -- or however you do it with a trackpad -- use command-v -- that is, hold down the "command" key while you simultaneously type the letter "v" -- to paste the first of the above four lines -- or all four lines at once if you are able to -- into the nano editor window.
Repeat the same steps to copy and paste the other three lines into your Terminal window as well, if you cannot do all four lines at the same time.
Once you have all four lines copied into your Terminal window, hit your "return" key.
Finally, type control-x -- that is, hold down the "control" key while you simultaneously type the letter "x" -- to exit the nano editor.
If you see a prompt which asks you if you want to save the modified buffer, simply say "yes" by typing the letter "y".
If everything went well, you should now see a difference in the appearance of the Terminal prompt at the bottom of your screen. There will be other color changes you will see if you ever use the "ls" command in the Terminal to list the contents of your computer"s hidden directories.
NOTE: How you accomplish the above may be a little different, depending on your particular computer operating system. The main thing that you want to consider is that you want to copy and paste, and then save to disk all four of those lines in your Terminal profile. Please do whatever it takes to get that accomplished. You may possibly even be able to copy and paste all four lines at once, and then just save one time, which will make things a lot easier for you.
We are not done quite yet.
Still using the Terminal, under the "Terminal" menu, select the "Preferences" option in order to open the "Preferences" window.
Once the Preferences window opens, click on the "General" button if that pane is not already selected for you.
On the "General" pane, where it says "On startup, open:", make sure that "New window with profile" is enabled".
In the pull-down menu below it, select "Homebrew" if it is not already selected.
Next, click on the "Profiles" button.
When that pane opens, click on "Homebrew" in the left side of the window.
If it does not have the word "Default" directly below it, then click on the "Default" button which is located in the bottom left-hand corner of the pane.
Next, with the "Homebrew" theme still selected, click on the "Text" button near the top middle of the pane. There will be five buttons in a row in Yosemite, and "Text" is the first of them.
Make sure that all five boxes under the "Text" section have a checkmark. They are:
Antialias text
Use bold fonts
Allow blinking text
Display ANSI colors
Use bright colors for bold text
You can adjust the three colors to the right of those five boxes to whatever you like. Just click in each box, and a color wheel will appear on your screen.
Right below those five buttons that are near the top of the pane, you can also adjust the font family and font size to whatever you like by clicking on the "Change" button that is located on the right side of the pane. I have poor eye sight, so I keep my font size set to 24. Yes, really! 
Likewise, you can choose whatever cursor style and color you like in the bottom middle corner of that same pane.
Next, click on the "Window" button that is located near the top middle of the pane. It is located in that same row of five buttons.
When that pane opens, make sure that the "Window Size" is set to 80 columns and 48 rows. The reason why we are setting "Rows" to 48 instead of the standard 24 rows for BBSing, is to make sure that when you visit the Armageddon BBS, nothing will flip off of the top of your screen before you have had a chance to read it. That can be quite confusing for BBSing newbies.
Right above the "Window Size" settings, you will see a section called "Background". Click on the color box that says "Color & Effects" right next to it. When the color wheel opens on your screen, make sure that the color is set to solid black, "Opacity" is set to 100% and blur is set to 20%.
The final adjustment we are going to make is found on the "Advanced" pane, so please click on the "Advanced" button. It should be the last button in the row of five buttons near the top of the window.
In the "Terminfo" section where it says "Declare terminal as", make sure that "xterm-256color" is selected in the pull-down menu.
IMPORTANT: Once you log on to my BBS, if you see a lot of strange symbols and characters which you do not understand, do the following:
1. Log off of the BBS by typing the letter "O".
2. Go back into to your Terminal preferences.
3. On the "Advanced" pane, instead of using "xterm-256color", try using "ansi" instead.
4. Close the Terminal preferences window.
5. Log back on to the BBS and see if you see any improvements.
Returning to our original instructions, once you make the adjustments on the "Advanced" pane, you can close the "Profiles" window by clicking on the red button in the top left corner.
Now you are ready to begin BBSing, and seeing Bulletin Board Services in all of their colorful ANSI and ASCII graphics glory! Hey! It was cool back in the day during the 1980"s and early 1990"s!
Just to get a fresh start, I suggest that you close the current Terminal window, and shut down the Terminal app. Next, relaunch it.
Once the Terminal window is open, at the new colorful prompt that you now have, type the following:
telnet 202.128.4.177
Let me offer a brief word of explanation for the uninitiated . . .
"Telnet" is the Internet protocol that is used to access BBSes, just as "http" is the protocol that is used to access web pages, and "ftp" is the protocol that is used to download files from file transfer servers.
"202.128.4.177" is the current static IP address of the "Armageddon BBS", as well as of the "Endtime Prophecy Net" website, and of the "Armageddon" Hotline server as well.
In fact, using the domain name "endtimeprophecy.net" instead of the IP address may also work as well.
So the above terminal command is telling your computer to telnet to my IP address -- that is, to my computer -- so that you can log on to my BBS.
After you type "telnet 202.128.4.177", just hit your "return" key, and let the "magic" of BBSing begin.
Wait a few seconds, and the Welcome/Log in screen of the Armageddon BBS should appear in your Terminal window. If not, close the window, and open a new window by choosing "Homebrew" under the "Shell" menu and the "New Window" submenu. In fact, if you have set "Homebrew" as your default theme as you were supposed to do, anytime you open a new Terminal session, it should automatically open a window using your "Homebrew" settings.
Now, more about the BBS log in process . . .
IMPORTANT: As a new visitor to my BBS, you need to type the word "New" at the first prompt that you see. Do NOT attempt to enter a name or an alias or a user number, because you don"t have one yet. If you try doing that, the BBS will not recognize you, and you will be kicked off after three attempts. So again, you need to type the word "new" -- obviously without the quote marks -- at the first prompt when you see my BBS Welcome screen.
As soon as you type "new", hit your "return" key.
Immediately after doing this, you will be presented with a few short, basic questions in order to setup your free account on the Armageddon BBS. Don"t worry; there is nothing really personal. In fact, I don"t even force you to provide a real name. Just use an alias; that is, an online name.
With some of the questions, I have offered the best answers in brackets or parentheses in order to avoid confusion with new users. Please follow them for the best experience on my BBS.
Once you provide answers to the questions, and establish a password, you will be logged into the BBS as a new user. From there, just follow the screen prompts, and read whatever you see before you.
Now listen up!
You CANNOT break the BBS -- or your computer -- by trying out all of the options that you see on the Main Menu, the Transfer Menu, or in the Online Library -- or "G-Files" -- section.
The way that a BBS works is by typing letters, numbers, or certain other characters, or a combination of characters, at the prompt. The commands that you are supposed to type are in a different color from the rest of the text that you see on the Main Menu and the Transfer Menu. That is how you know they are commands that you can type.
Get curious, and don"t worry. Just take your time, see what each command does, pay attention to whatever appears on your screen, and enjoy this old computer technology from decades ago. It is what we did before the Internet and the World Wide Web came along. Yes, I am sorry to disappoint you, but online communities did NOT begin with the current generation!
I hope that this tutorial has been a help to you.
Happy BBSing!
Your Pal,
Bill Kochman a.k.a. The WordWeaver
Email: wordweaver777@gmail.com
Website: http://www.endtimeprophecy.net [Use a web browser for this]
Blog: http://www.endtimeprophecy.net/Blog [Use a web browser for this]
BBS: telnet 202.128.4.177 [You need a terminal app for this]
Hotline Server: 202.128.4.177:550 [You need a Hotline client for this]
Let"s Go Telnet to the Armageddon BBS! Your Blast to the Past!
