The link to our Bulletin board system is designed to work through Telnet. If you are using Netscape Navigator and receive an error message "unable to find application" do the following: Select "General Preferences" from the Options pull down menu. Choose the APPS tab. Click on Browse, next to the telnet application box, and navigate to any telnet application that you may have. This will automatically start up telnet when you click on the BBS link.
TekWorld, the NewTek BBS, is a ready source of information on solutions for problems you may encounter with any of our products, as well as a place where users share techniques and tips.
When you connect to the BBS for the first time, you will be taken through a series of steps needed to set up an account. These include a number of questions and displays which help set up the BBS to talk to the terminal program you are using, and then a questionnaire for personal information used to setup your account.
The important thing is that your must have your product serial numbers handy when you are answering the questionnaire. The BBS has multiple levels of access, and before we grant access we confirm that you are a registered NewTek product owner by comparing the serial numbers you supply in the questionnaire, with the serial numbers we have on file in our Registration Database.
What you need to know First:
You may need to set your "terminal parameters" in your telnet program. The BBS transmits data as 8-bit words, No Parity, 1 stop bit, which may be abbreviated in your program menus as "8N1". You can also have "ANSI On" selected, and if your telnet program has VT102 or similar terminal emulation available, you can use that.
If you wish to do file transfer with the BBS, then you need a telnet program which supports Zmodem file transfer protocol. Van Dyke Technologies produces a telnet program called "CRT", which you can purchase for a small shareware fee, and InterSoft International produces NetTerm, a terminal program which has both telnet and modem capability, also for a small shareware fee. You can find information about both these programs on the BBS.
The BBS is driven by text menus, not "mousable" buttons. This allows the BBS to be used by any computer or terminal type, and both by network and by modem. You will not be able to mouse-click on menu items on screen to access them. Instead, you must enter commands at your keyboard.
Each screen on the BBS will present command menus, with commands that consist of one-, two-, or three-letters, followed by a brief explanation. Just read the explanations, and then type in the command you wish to use, followed by pressing your return key. That will execute the menu option you have chosen.
Sometimes you may have a "line prompt", with a list of options, such as Browse, Yank, etc. Type in just the capitalized letter, then hit return, to execute a command from such a prompt.
Some menus are numbered lists. These are lists of areas to enter, in either the Public Message Base or the Uploads and Downloads area, or items to read online, in News and Announcements or General Text files. Just type the number of item you wish to read, or area you wish to enter, and hit return.
We recommend that after completing the login process for the first time, you should proceed to the main menu, enter the Public Message Base, then enter the called "Front Hall". In the Front Hall you will find a BBS Support message area, which you should enter. There you can review a number of helpful messages on use of the BBS system.