Using Bulletin Board Services; Connecting Directly To Another Computer - Toshiba Satellite 110 Series User Manual

The Internet and Other Fascinating Places

Using Bulletin Board Services

Local electronic bulletin board services (BBSs), like their mun-
dane counterpart hanging on your wall, let you post messages for
friends, or questions to which a wide variety of people can
respond. Many BBSs also offer software (programs) that you can
copy to your computer (called downloading).
Most BBSs serve a particular interest group and are run by an indi-
vidual or small group of people. For example, a science fiction
BBS may have messages from people looking for out-of-print
books and offer a few sample sections of new works.
Most computer companies offer a BBS as one way to provide
customers with software updates and answers to their questions.
Toshiba's 24-hour BBS offers Toshiba computing information
and is a good source of Toshiba utilities files and technical bulle-
tins. Complete information about accessing Toshiba's BBS is
found in "Toshiba's Bulletin Board Service" on page 263.
To access a BBS, you'll need a general-purpose communications
program. See the following section for information about using
such programs.

Connecting Directly to Another Computer

If you're connecting directly to another computer, you'll need a
general-purpose communications program, such as the Hyperter-
minal program included with Windows 95. This section describes
some of the things you'll need to know to connect to another com-
puter, but does not contain specific instructions for any communi-
cations programs. Refer to Hyperterminal's Help for information
about using Hyperterminal.
There are two things you need to know before you can connect to
another computer:
The communications parameters
The file transfer protocol (if you're downloading or uploading
files)
The following sections explain what these mean.
Part I: Getting To Know Your Computer
Connecting with the World
159