When?

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.

How?

There are several ways to join us on the MUD chat, and I have instructions for as many of them as I can think of:

• Web Interface: The newest and easiest method! Just click the link, and log in.
• UNIX/Linux
• Windows
  • MuckClient: My recommended method in Windows
  • zMUD
  • TeraTerm
• Macs

Web Access

The Brin-L MUD now has a web interface, at http://wtgab.demon.co.uk/~brinl/mud/

Big News!

For those having problems connecting to the chat from an internet cafe without telnet, William has added a new web interface to the MUD chat, so you can easily reach us from anywhere.

Acknowledgements

Several people have helped me write this page, especially Gord Sellar, who wrote the Mac tips. I don't know anything about Macs, but luckily, Gord does, so he contributed that section. I'm grateful to many others who pointed out factual errors in this page over the years, and gave me new tips, including Marco Maisenhelder, Terry Johnson, and Jeroen van Baardwijk. In addition, I'm also grateful to Eileen Tan for keeping the Cornell MUD up and running for all those years, and to William T. Goodall for setting up and running the new server.

Setup Help

To access the Brin-L MUD, use a telnet or MUD/MUSH client program to log on at mud.brin-l.org, at port 2102.

UNIX/Linux

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

telnet mud.brin-l.org 2102

on the command line. I'm sure there are better MUD/MUCK clients for Linux than plain old telnet, but if you've managed to climb the learning curve to install and use Linux in the first place, then I think you can probably figure out how to install a better client yourself. ;-)

Windows 9x, NT, 2000, and XP

The main MUD client I recommend is MuckClient. I have also included instructions for zMUD and TeraTerm. All three are free.
(Woo-hoo! ;-) )

MuckClient

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.brin-l.org" in the Host Name/IP Address field.
6. Type "2102" for your port.
7. Hit the "Add" button.
8. Repeat steps 4-6 to add any other servers to the list.
9. 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. Any time you want to switch servers, or go to another MUD, repeat steps 2-4.
6. Don't Panic! (tm) In MuckClient, you type your commands into a seperate text box on the bottom of the screen, not into the MUD window itself like a telnet client...

If this doesn't work, email me or William T. Goodall, and we'll try to help.

zMUD

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.brin-l.org" 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 William T. Goodall, 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 William T. Goodall, 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.brin-l.org 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.brin-l.org, 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

• The first time you go to the MUD, you need to create a character to play. You also need to think up a password. So, say you want your character name to be jimmy, and you've decided to make scifi23 your password. You would type

  create jimmy scifi23

  then hit the Enter key, and that will get you right in.
• Every time you go to the MUD after that, you need to log in with the character you chose, so type

  connect jimmy scifi23

  then hit the Enter key.
• Once you're inside, here's the most important tip: 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 double quote ". So, typing

  "This is something to say!

  gets the same results as typing

  say This is something to say!

• The second most important tip when you're inside the MUD is how to leave. When you want to leave, you must type QUIT in all-caps, then press the Enter key.
• There are no built-in emotes like grin, smile, laugh, etc. in the new server, but you can write your own. For example, if you wanted your character to be bad, bad Leroy Brown ;-), you could type

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

  If your name is steve, then the other players will see "steve is badder than old King Kong, meaner than a junkyard dog!"
• The : command will automatically insert a space between your name and the text you enter, but that isn't too convenient if you want to use an apostrophe after your character name, say if you want to own something, or you want to use a contraction. Fortunately, there's the ; command. Typing

  ;'s gonna like this!

  will result in the emote "steve's gonna like this!"
• To see the names of everybody currently in the MUD, just type WHO and push the Enter key. Make sure that WHO is in all-caps, or the server won't recognize it.
• Most characters get a title, like Steve "the Pixelsmith". How do you get one? If your name is Jimmy, and you want your title to be "the Wonder-Hamster", simply type:

  @desc Jimmy=Jimmy the Wonder-Hamster

  When people look at you with the "look" command, they will see your title. If you want words in your title before your name, you type basically the same thing:

  @desc Jimmy=Super Jimmy the Wonder-Hamster

  will result in the title "Super Jimmy the Wonder-Hamster."
• Whenever a user types a WHO command, the MUD server will show a short little phrase describing what each user is "Doing". You can set that phrase for yourself using this command:

  @doing What I want to be doing

• The teach command is an easy way to show other players how to execute a command. So, to show somebody how to set his doing phrase, you would type this:

  teach @doing Teaching how to set your doing

  The server will execute that @doing command, and it will also output this to other users:

  steve types --> @doing Teaching how to set your doing

  To show other users exactly how you did it.
• Like most things related to UNIX and C, the MUD is case-sensitive. All commands must be in the right case, or the server will complain, and it won't do what you want.

MUD Wizard Tips

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

• Use DOING to see the same information about your fellow players that non-wizards get through the WHO command. A wizard's WHO command shows extra information, like number of commands each user has typed, and an IP address to each user's host.

Other Resources

These will be added if I ever find any.

History

The old MUD server Eileen Tan was running at Cornell is gone. Since then, we've moved to one of William T. Goodall's personal Mac OSX machines. The current server works differently, so I've modified the instructions on this page. However, if you ever need the old instructions, you can find them here.

There's an even older chat setup, and I'm keeping the link for old time's sake.