Getting Connected

If you are reading this then you most likely already have an ISP (Internet Service Provider) established. There are several ways to hook yourself up to a MUD's internet port. First, you can use telnet once you find out the MUD's network address and port number.

If you're lucky, you can connect to RetroMUD right now! Simply move click on RetroMUD and a telnet application will open up in another window.

All you need now is software to connect to the MUD. To find software to connect to Retro follow this link: Retro Links. Here you'll find links to sites for software to connect to Retro, for various platforms. Read the software help. When they ask for the ip address, Retro's is retroMUD.org, and when it asks for the port, RetroMUD's port is 3000.

If you're using straight telnet on a VMS system, you might have to make sure that your terminal has "newlines" turned on. If it doesn't, the MUD's output will get spewed across the screen in a most ugly fashion. Your second option is to scout out the many fine client programs which exist for the sole purpose of providing a friendly and useful front end to MUDs.

Frequently Asked QuestionWhat's a client program?

Telnet is a rather ugly way to connect to most MUDs, since it doesn't do any fancy text wrapping, and if someone says something while you're typing out a line, it will make a mess out of your line, making it hard to see what you're typing and hard to keep track of what's going on in the MUD. A client program is simply another program you use instead of telnet to connect to a MUD. Clients also provide useful things such as macros and the ability to gag or highlight certain MUD output.
To connect to a MUD using the default Windows95/NT telnet, go to the 'Start' menu and click on the 'Run' menu item. In the text field, enter:

telnet retromud.org 3000

Of course, you should use the proper address for your MUD as described in the telnet section. This will connect you to the MUD, but it may be a bit confusing. The first thing you need to do is turn echo on so that you can see what you are typing. Go to the 'Terminal' menu and click 'Preferences'. Check the 'Local Echo' check box. You may also want to resize the window so there are no scroll bars.

You will not be able to stand playing a MUD this way for very long. It is highly recommended you download a Windows MUD client ASAP before you go insane. In the least, you might want to grab a useable telnet program like EWAN or CRT.