crossposted from Trek_Humor_Filk and email...
Okay... those of you who know about Telnet or who are already connected,
go ahead and skip this post...
Telnetting into Fidonet -- 
Requirements: 
  an Internet connection (local ISP) 
  a "terminal emulator" (comm.) program 
  a Telnet-capable BBS 
  an offline reader (QWK, usually) 
   1) the Internet connection -- most of y'all should be able to handle
that yourselves.  
   2) the TE prog -- TeraTerm is freeware, and very easy to use... if you
do Windows 3.1, get it.  The homepage is at
        http://www.vector.co.jp/authors/VA002416/teraterm.html
, and you can also find the program at either Riksun
        (ftp://riksun.riken.go.jp/pub/pc/misc/terminal/teraterm/)
or Tokyo University (ftp://ftp.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/PC/terminal/teraterm/) 
    If you use Win95, the the best program - from what Kevin says - is
Hyperterminal... an extension of the existing Windows terminal program.
You can get it from the Microsoft ftp site, or from Kevin. 
TeraTerm is easy to set up, and just like GoldEd it has editable
configuration files.  I would suggest, however, that you *don't* set
the program for automatic Zmodem download... it doesn't quite work properly.
Just click through the menus or set up a function key and you'll do fine. 
(Almost fine - for whatever reason, I can't get it to recognize the end of
a downloaded packet... any suggestions out there?  It d/l the whole packet
fine, but then it keeps the d/l connection open... it won't cut off) 
3) a Telnet BBS -- there are over 1,000 Telnet-capable BBS's out there, and
there is an extensive list available at
        http://www.internetdatabase.com/telnet.html
The list requires a special reader, but that's also available at the site.
A standard Telnet BBS address will look like this:
        telnet://bbs.neverending.com
When you enter the address into your TE program's Connection list, *do not*
enter the "telnet://"... just add the domain name (bbs.neverending.com)
   The above BBS, in fact, (Neverending) has the Film Echo available (it's
listed as Fido area 365, Movie Discussion and Review)... Neverending has
over 1,000 Fidonet conferences available, as well as several Net132 Echoes.
4) a decent offline reader -- BlueWave is what I use, and it's easy enough
to find on Simtel in any of its three variations: 
 BW23_386.ZIP (32 bit, for 386's and above; uses the DOS4GW module) 
 BW23_DOS.ZIP (16 bit, works on just about any PC, works nicely through
        Windows)
 BW23_OS2.ZIP (for those unfortunates who are working with an IBM dinosaur) 
Like I said, they can be found at:   http://www.simtel.net/simtel.net/
; just search the DOS directory for any of the above file names. 
 
That's it!  With the above, you can Telnet into Film and join the zoo once
again.  If you need help with any of the programs, there are several of us
out here who understand them quite well (mostly, that is).
                         David "Nightwolf" Masters
                             dmasters@jlc.net
      MasterWorks Web Design @  http://www.jlc.net/~dmasters/index.html
... "Right Here Right Now" -- Precious Metal
___ Blue Wave/DOS v2.30 [NR]
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/Wildcat5! v2.0
---------------