The FanTek BBS -- bbs.fantek.org and (301) 203-9582

        Gaming!                   Friends!             Computers!
Fun!                         ~|             |~                   Martians!
         ~|      Sardines!   [-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-]    Castles!      |~
         [-_-_-_-_-]          |             |          [-_-_-_-_-]
          | o   o |           [  0   0   0  ]           | o   o |
Parties!   |     |    -|       |           |       |-    |     |   Cons!
           |     |_-___-___-___-|         |-___-___-___-_|     |
           |  o  ]              [    0    ]              [  o  |
           |     ]   o   o   o  [ _______ ]  o   o   o   [     | ----__________
_____----- |     ]              [ ||||||| ]              [     |
           |     ]              [ ||||||| ]              [     | Bad Movies!
       _-_-|_____]--------------[_|||||||_]--------------[_____|-_-_
      ( (__________------------_____________-------------_________) )
Costuming!                                         The Punk Walrus Saga!
                       Mad Inventors!
           Sci-Fi!                                          Fantasy!

Telnet to bbs.fantek.org or dial in to (301) 203-9582 (DC metro area)

Messages! Chat room! Text files! Strange silliness!
(And returning Real Soon Now, the infamous online interactive games!)

Give us a call! Sysops are standing by!

Yes, the great and wonderful Era of the Ataris is Gone! The New, Improved, Gets-Whites-Whiter-Gets-Colors-Brighter FanTek BBS is now Here! (Now under our very own "bbs.fantek.org" name!)

Sometimes someone in the chat room, always bulletins on events, and lots of messages to read and reply to! No, it's not an Internet service provider -- nor would we want it to be -- and it's still rated PG-13. But it's still a nice place, where you can find real people to talk to, so just telnet in or dial in and see us sometime!

Featuring:

Telnet Access -- No long-distance charges!
Lots of Nodes -- Come visit the chat room!
Library -- Our growing text file base!
Support -- For CastleCon and other FanTek activities!
Other Stuff -- We're inventing it all the time!

And of course, friendly discussions, sometimes thoughtful, sometimes punny, related to Science Fiction, Gaming, Inventions, Space Science, Computers, Chocolate, and lots more....

Not Featuring:

We do not do any ``Adult'' topics, cursing, flame wars, etc.
We do not have any Software (Legit or Pirated).

Trouble connecting?

If you need a telnet program... You can get one from several sources, including TUCOWS (http://www.tucows.com/), UNC's PC and Mac shareware collections, and many other software archives. CRT and WinQVT (for Windows 3.x/95) and NCSA Telnet (for Macintosh) are among the better telnet programs available.

If the direct links to the BBS aren't working in your web browser... it may need to be configured to actually use your telnet program. (In Netscape, go to the Options menu, choose General Preferences, and then choose the Applications tab. Other web browsers may have similar configuration procedures.)

Joining the FanTek BBS

This BBS is free but donations are welcome and needed!

If you wish to be on our FanTek BBS, first telnet to bbs.fantek.org or dial in to (301) 203-9582. Then follow the directions. You'll get to choose a login name and enter your real name and address and everything. A login name may be a short "handle" or alias, but we must have your real name, address, and phone number in the new user questionnaire.

After registering a login name on the BBS, you can log in and read the bulletins, but you must be validated to receive full access to the message and chat areas. There are two ways to do this:

First, if you are connecting via the Internet, and are long distance to the Washington DC metro area, give us a few days to validate you. If you're still not validated after several days, email us at fantek@fantek.org with your login name, password, real name, and voice phone number (and be sure to include preferred times to call, in Eastern Standard Time) and we will see about validating you. (We may not voice validate you immediately, but we will do random spot checks periodically... it's important to leave your full real name, address, and voice phone number in the new user questionnaire.)
If you ARE a local call away, please call the FanTek House at (301) 292-5231, between 10am and 10pm Eastern Time ONLY. If you reach the answering machine, don't bother leaving a message -- you have to actually talk to a human being to be validated, so keep trying until you get an actual SysOp on the phone. (PLEASE do not call after 10 PM! We need our sleep... zzz)

The only thing we ask, and insist on, is that all our Friends behave in a Polite and Friendly manner. This goes for online at the BBS, when you come to a convention, and when you visit us at our House, which someday will be turned into our Castle.

More information about the BBS

The FanTek BBS is run on an AMD 586 with a Cyclades multiport board, running Linux and Dave Costantino's NVBBS.

Donations

In 1990, we decided to enter the world of telecommunications by starting our own BBS. This proved to be rather expensive (like many of our other events) and therefore, we ask of those that partake in these events to help defray the costs. All users are given access to the BBS free of charge, however this costs us a lot of money for phone bills, the Internet connection, equipment, and just general maintenance. We used to charge everyone $10 a year, and we no longer do this, but our costs keep going up and up. So we hope those who can afford to do so will give us donations of whatever they can. After conferring with users and other BBS Sysops, we came to this donation schedule:

Free (user): BBS access (including the Chat Room and the Text File Library)
$10 donation (registered user): Full BBS access (including Games)
$10,000 or higher donation (god-like being): Your own dedicated port (We should be so lucky....)

When you consider what has been put into this BBS, you will realize that $10 barely makes a dent, much less helping out with the five-phone-line bill that Bell Atlantic sends us every month. Please send your check or money order (no cash please--the U.S. Post office does not like it) to:

FanTek
1607 Thomas Road
Friendly, MD 20744-4130

Please include your Real Name and your Alias with your donation.

If you can only pay cash, you may do so in person at one of the FanTek events we hold at The House.

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