The official scheduled time for the Brin chat is Wednesday at 3 PM Eastern/2 PM Central time in the US, or 7 PM Greenwich time, but people can show up any time they want.

Setup Help

To access the Brin-L MUD, use a telnet or MUD/MUSH client program to log on at mud.sloansteady.com, at port 2102. There have been three other servers: gibbs.ruph.cornell.edu, at port 2102; einstein.ruph.cornell.edu, at port 2102; and islsol.mach.uni-karlsruhe.de, at port 80. If you don't see anybody in one server, try another.

I've added some tips to help Brin-L users log onto the MUD. I wrote UNIX/Linux and Windows 95/NT tips, and Gord Sellar wrote Mac tips. I don't know anything about Macs, but luckily, Gord does, so he contributed that section. I'd like to thank other people who have helped by pointing out factual errors in this page over the years, and giving me new tips, including Marco Maisenhelder, Terry Johnson, and Jeroen van Baardwijk.

UNIX/Linux

It's absurdly easy to do it on UNIX machines. Just type

telnet mud.sloansteady.com 2102

Windows 95/NT

There are now three different client programs I recommend: zMUD, MuckClient, or TeraTerm. None of them cost any money.
(Woo-hoo! ;-) )

zMUD is the better program for MUDding, but Windows NT 4.0 cannot run it (at least, mine can't...), so I recommend that NT users use MuckClient instead. By the way, if anybody knows of a way to run zMUD in NT, please tell me!

zMUD

The best free MUD client I've found for Windows is zMUD 3.62. (download)

Installing zMUD:

1. Download the zip file, then unzip it to c:\Program Files\zMUD
2. zMUD.exe is in c:\Program Files\zMUD Create a shortcut to zMUD.exe wherever you want it -- in the Start menu, or on the desktop

zMUD Setup:

1. In the menu, select File|Another Char
2. "New" button
3. Type a user ID in the user ID field (different for each combination of character and server you use -- I use "steve1", "steve2", etc...)
4. Type a title (I like "Brin-L 1", "Brin-L 2", etc. -- different name for each server)
5. Type "mud.sloansteady.com" in the host field
6. Port (2102 for the main server and gibbs, 80 for islsol)
7. Delete whatever's in the IP Address field
8. In the pull-down box, choose LPMUD
9. Character field: your character name in the MUD (mine's "steve")
10. Password field: the password you normally type in
11. Hit the "Connect" button, and you should get right into the MUD.
12. Repeat steps 1 - 10 for any other servers you might want to add.

Using zMUD:

1. Double-click your zMUD shortcut
2. In the menu, select File|Another Char
3. In the table of names and hosts, double-click the server you want to use, and you should get connected right into the MUD...
4. Don't Panic! (tm) In zMUD, you type your commands into a seperate text box on the bottom of the screen, not into the MUD window itself like TeraTerm...

If this doesn't work, email me or Marco Maisenhelder, and we'll try to help.

MuckClient

MuckClient is also pretty good, plus it will run on Windows NT as well as 95 and 98.

Installing MuckClient:

1. Download the MuckClient exe file, then run it.
2. Just choose all the defaults when it asks.
3. MuckClient's shortcut should show up in your Windows Start Menu, under "Software Internationals."

MuckClient Setup:

1. Run MuckClient
2. Go to Tools|Options
3. Select the "Muck Sessions" tab
4. Type "Brin-L Main" in the Session Name field
5. Type "mud.sloansteady.com" in the Host Name/IP Address field
6. Type "2102" for your port
7. Type your character name in the Name field (I entered "steve")
8. Type your password into the Password field
9. Hit the "Add" button
10. Repeat steps 4-9 to add any other servers to the list
11. Click OK to finish

Using MuckClient:

1. Choose MuckClient from the Start menu
2. Go to Session|New Connection
3. Click on the chat server you want (usually "Brin-L Main")
4. Click OK
5. MuckClient should automatically log you in, but if it gripes "Sorry, that name's too long", log in normally, with your character name and password. I don't know why the automatic login only works some of the time.
6. Any time you want to switch servers, or go to another MUD, click Session|New Connection, and repeat steps 2-5.

If this doesn't work, email me or Marco Maisenhelder, and we'll try to help.

TeraTerm

There is another free telnet program called TeraTerm. (download) If you know how to set it up (I'm going to tell you how in a little while!), it will support those neat color effects of the MUD, and you can even set it to show you what you're typing -- while you're typing!

I've written a batch file and an ini file that let you start up directly into the MUD from a shortcut. (BTW, if you've already set up your MUD client for Windows, please download the batch file telnet.bat again, and copy it over the old version, because I've changed that file to reflect the new Brin MUD address.)

I've even created a nice little icon you can use for the shortcut: .

How to use these weird gibberish files:

1. Install TerraTerm in c:\Program Files\Telnet\Ttermpro (Just download the zip file, unzip it to a temporary directory, and run Setup.exe)
2. Put the batch file in c:\Program Files\Telnet
3. Put the ini file in c:\Program Files\Telnet\Ttermpro
4. Create a shortcut wherever you want it -- in the Start menu, or on the desktop -- and make it a shortcut to the batch file (that is, make the shortcut point to C:\Program Files\Telnet\telnet.bat)
5. Follow the rest of the shortcut-creation process, and choose all the defaults. If you want to change the shortcut's icon to mine, place the icon in a convenient place -- I like c:\icons
6. Right-click the new shortcut, and choose Properties from the pull-down menu.
7. Click the Program tab. Make sure the little "Close on exit" checkbox is checked.
8. Click the "Change Icon" button. Click the Browse button. Choose the place you stuck the icon -- if you followed my example, you should browse over to c:\icons, and double-click brinmud.ico. Click OK. Click OK again.

Now, you should be able to double-click on the shortcut, and the MUD will start right up! If it doesn't work, email me or Marco Maisenhelder, and we'll try to help.

Macs (by Gord Sellar)

I think Mac people mainly use telnet to connect to MUDs... NCSA Telnet is available all over, probably at the info-mac archives, but I found it at ZDNet too... the download page for that specific application is http://hotfiles.zdnet.com/cgi-bin/texis/swlib/mac/infomac.html?fcode=MC12577

Once you've installed it, and have a Net connection, all you do is select "open connection", and then in the dialogue box, type (or paste) the following into the "host name" field:

mud.sloansteady.com 2102

If you want to get fancier, and have the address of the MUD under a pre-set connection that you can just select, open up the Edit Menu; go to Preferences, and select "Sessions". Then, under hostname paste mud.sloansteady.com, and under port type 2102. Name the Alias for this Session something recognizable like "Brin-L_MUD" or something like that.

Then when you want to connect there, just use the "Open" option under the File Menu. Beside the "host" field, is an arrow button -- selecting it will open a menu from which you can select the Brin-L Mud alias. Telnet should connect there directly. Then you just give it your name (the same name you will always use to log in there) and a password which you'll need to remember, for next time you try log in. The rest should be pretty much the same as with the PC instructions.

If you still can't get connected to the MUD from a Mac, email Gord Sellar, and he'll try to help.

General MUD Tips

Here are some tips to make your stay on Jijo (the Brin-L "MUD-ball") a little more pleasant:

• Like most things related to UNIX and C, the MUD is case-sensitive. All commands must be in all lowercase letters, and to use a command on a character or object, you must type the character/object's name in all lowercase letters too.
• The most important: type "say" before every line of conversation you type, or nobody will see it! Luckily, there is a shortcut you can use for say: the single quote '. So, typing

  'This is something to say!

  gets the same results as typing

  say This is something to say!

• If you want to avoid typing "say" all the time, you can type "converse", then a carriage-return. Every line you type after that will be displayed, like in an ordinary chatroom. You can emote from inside converse mode if you start it with a '!'. For example, you could type "!grin" to grin. This is very useful, because there are some cool and funny built-in emotes! To exit converse mode, type '.' or '**' at the beginning of a line, and hit the carriage return.
• If you want to write a fancier emote than the ones like grin, smile, laugh, etc that are built into the MUD, you must write them yourself. For example, if you wanted your character to be bad, bad Leroy Brown ;-), you could type

  emote is badder than old King Kong, meaner than a junkyard dog!

  You could also use the shortcut for emote, the ':' character, like this:

  : is badder than old King Kong, meaner than a junkyard dog!

• To see the names of everybody currently in the MUD, just type "who" If you're in converse mode, you can type "!who"
• If you want to tell something to only one character, use "tell." For example, if you want to tell Dolphin something, you type

  tell dolphin Cool pictures!

• The command "menu" provides an easy way to navigate the MUD for beginners.
• Most characters get a title, like Steve "the Pixelsmith". How do you get one? Simply type:

  title the Pixelsmith

  Some characters get really fancy titles, with part of the title in front of the name. If you wanted the title "Studious Steve, the Pixelsmith", you could type:

  title Studious $N, the Pixelsmith

  The $N substitutes for the character name.

MUD Wizard Tips

Follow these tips, and with any luck, you'll be another "Gan-dork"! ;-)

• It might help you to think of the MUD as a UNIX shell with a weird medieval style. Of course, that only helps if you know something about UNIX... ;-)
• Wizards must master the ugly incantations of the ed text editor to make changes to the MUD and its rooms and races. Here is some information on ed.
• The races need more work. You can find files specifying them in /std/race
• You can use "makeroom" to build a room, without resorting to ed. Simply type "makeroom" in your directory, and the program tells you what to do from there.
• If you've gotten lost wandering around in the MUD, you'll have to go to a room with people in it before you can talk to them. The "goto" command is an easy way to get to people. For example, if a character named Marco is in the "who" listing, you can type "goto marco" (note the all-lowercase words) and you'll be moved to the room where he is, and you will be able to talk to him, and anybody else in the room. You can also use "goto start" to get back to the start room.

Other Resources

Marco has added a Web Server that allows wizards to edit room files using an easy interface, create wizard home pages for themselves, and use various utilities. A must-have!

You can also use FTP to move files to and from the MUD. Just point your FTP program at mud.sloansteady.com, using port 2106, and log in with your MUD character name and password.