Low Self Esteem Issue 11: How 2 Become And Elite Warez Trader - Part I: BBSs

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Low Self Esteem

· 26 Apr 2019

How 2 Become And Elite Warez Trader - Part I: BBSs

Written By: Aphex Twin
July 2nd, 1996

LSE NEWS

First Of All, I'd Like To Say That You Can Find Issues Of Low Self Esteem On The Following FTP Site: FTP://FTP.EText.Org/pub/Zines/LowSelfEsteem, Thanks To The Operators Of The EText Archives For Giving This T-File Collection A Home. You May Also Request An Issue By Writing EMail To Me At The Following Address: PARKER_LEWIS@HOTMAIL.COM, You May Send Me Mail Concerning Comments, Flames, Or If You Want To Write Something For Low Self Esteem.

Well, Summer Is Finally Here, I've Been On Summer Holidays For About A Week Now, Even Though It's Great Not Having To Go To School, It's Quite Boring, So After Bumming Around The House Doing Nothing, I Decided To Write Some Articles For LSE, And Since I've Got Plenty Of Time Now, Expect To See Many Issues Coming Out In The Following Weeks, Even Though LSE Started Out By Being A Geek Newsletter, I've Decided To Expand It, Since The Other Magazine That I Wrote For "Forbidden Knowledge" Is Dead, You'll Be Seeing More Articles In This T-File Collection Which Not Only Covers Geek Culture, But Also Other Aspects, Like The Underground Scene, Society, Etc..

BEFORE GETTING STARTED

Ok, In This Issue, I'll Be Helping You Get Started In The Warez Trading Scene, In This Issue I'll Cover Trading On BBS, Next Issue I'll Cover Getting Warez On The Internet. Everything That I'm Going To Write In This Article Is From Personal Experience, And Before You Continue Reading This Article, I Must Advise You And Make You Aware Of The Dangers Of The Warez Scene, Which Can Be Addictive And Your Life May Get Ruined By It (Mine Was), Read Issue 6 Of LSE To Read About My Experience In The Warez Scene, And Then Think Twice About Entering This Scene. In This Article, I Expect You To Have Some Computer Experience And Not Be A Complete Lamer, I'm Hoping That You Atleast Know How To ZIP Programs, Setup Transfer Protocols And Use A Communication Program, If You Don't, Then I Advise You To Get More Comfortable With Computers And Software. Also Don't Expect To Get Anywhere With A Modem Slower Then 14400 BPS.

GETTING BBS NUMBERS AND NUPS

Having That Done, Let's Start. OK, So You've Had Your Modem For Quite Awhile And You've Been Calling Public Domain/Shareware BBSs Frequently But You've Become Bored Of Shareware BBS And Shareware Programs And You Want To Enter The World Of Warez, Well The First Thing You'll Need Is A Number Of A Warez BBS, There Isn't Anything In The World Easier To Get, Even On PD Boards, Numbers Of Warez BBSes Will Appear, First Of All Do A Message Scan In All The Message Bases For The Word 'NUP', And Then Scan For Your Area Code, So For Example If You Live In Toronto, Canada, Do A Message Scan For The Numbers 416 And 905, Write All The Numbers You Encounter On Paper Or Capture Them Using Your Communication Program Even If They Are Of Other Shareware BBSes, Write Them Down. Alot Of BBSes Also Have A BBS List Command In The Main Menu, Write Down All The Names And Numbers That Appear On The List And Disconnect From The BBS. Now One By One, Call All The BBS Numbers That You Obtained And Repeat The Previous Process And Increase Your BBS List. Eventually You'll Run Into An Art Board, This Is Your Connection To The Warez World Because The Art/ANSI Scene Is A Sub-Culture Of The Warez Scene. Keep On Scanning The Message Bases And Capturing The BBS List, In A Couple Of Days Your BBS List Will Already Be Huge With More Than 100 Numbers And You Should Have Already Obtained Some Numbers Of Warez Boards.

LOGGING INTO THE BBS

Ok, Now Heres What You Need To Know When You Log Into A Warez BBS, Never Use Your Real Name, For An Alias Choose A Name That Has One Of The Following Words In It: Dark, Evil, Shadow, Master, Chaotic, Demon, Death, Killer, Lord, You Get The Idea, For Your Age, Type In Anything Over 18 And Under 27, Put A Fake Address And A Fake Long Distance Phone Number, If The BBS Has A Call Back Verifier, Screw It, Warez BBS That Have A Call-Back Verifier Are Lame Anyways, And Sysops Tend To Be Nicer Towards Long Distance Callers. Alot Of Warez Boards Have A NUP (New User Password), The NUP Should Have Appeared In Your Message Captures, If You Don't Have The NUP For A BBS Don't Worry, Hold On To The Number And Maybe Someday You Might Be Able To Obtain The NUP Or You Might Get It Off Somebody With A Trade For Other BBS Numbers And NUPs. Some Warez BBSes, Instead Of Having A NUP They Have A NUV (New User Voting), In A NUV, There Are A Series Of Questions To Answer, Acronyms To Represent And You'll Have To Write A Letter To The Sysop Or To The Voters, Some Questions That Might Appear Are For Example, If Your In Any Group, What Are Your Latest Games And Apps, How Many Years You've Been In The Scene, And So Forth. For The Group/Affiliates Questions Answer By Saying That Your In A Major Group Like TDT, TDU-Jamm Or Eclipse. There Will Probably Be Some Acronyms That You Have To Give Their Meaning, At The End Of This File I'll Include A List Of Acronyms And Their Meanings To Help You Out. For The Latest Games/Apps Question, Pick Up The Latest Issue Of A Computer Mag And Look Through It To Find Out The Latest Games & Applications And Put Them In Your Answer. Now, Probably The Most Important Part Is The Letter You Have To Write To The Sysop Or The Voters. Here Are Some Stuff You Can Say In Your Letter, Tell Them That You've Been Involved In The Scene For Over 4 Years And That You Used To Be In Famous Groups That Don't Exist Anymore Like For Example The Humble Guys Or Fairlight. Tell Them Your Calling Long Distance And That You Call Out Often To Other Long Distance BBSes To Get The Latest 0 Day Warez, Tell Them Also That You Trade On IRC And Have Various 0 Day FTP Sites, This Kind Of Shit Usually Impresses Them.

Ok, So Now You've Gotten The BBS Number, You've Got Passed The NUP, And All The Questions But Now Your Faced With A New Problem, You Must Upload A Certain Quantity Of Warez Before You Have Full Access On The BBS. So The Next Chapter Will Be About Getting Warez.

GETTING WAREZ

Ok, Now I Ask You, What Do Warez BBSes And PD BBSes Have In Common, Answer: ANSI PACKS, Alot Of Warez BBSes Also Accept ANSI Packs As Well As H/P/A/V (Hacking/Phreaking/Anarchy/Virus etc) Files And PCBoard/Renegade Utils, But Since The HPAV And BBS Files Can Be Quite Small And You Need To Upload Atleast 5MB Of Stuff, Then I Recommend ANSI Packs Because They Can Be Quite Huge At Times, And They'll Give You More Credit. You Can Find Art Packs On PD BBSes Or On Art Boards, And It's Even Easier If You Have Internet, Just Do A NetSearch For The Word ACID And Download The Latest ACID Art Pack From The ACID Web Page. Be Sure To Get Only Recent Art Packs That Are Only A Few Months Old, Packs That Are More Then Half A Year Old Usually Get Rejected. Ok So Suppose You Find A Recent Art Pack On A Shareware BBS But You Have No Credits, Well Then Enter EDIT And Type In The Following Batch File:

@Echo Off 
Break On 
Echo Creating FILE_ID.DIZ File 
Echo      -= Gory Doom v1.1 =->FILE_ID.DIZ 
Echo     Cool New WAD For Doom II>>FILE_ID.DIZ 
Echo  Complete New Graphics & Sounds>>FILE_ID.DIZ 
Echo  It'll Make You Piss Your Pants>>FILE_ID.DIZ 
Echo Creating Junk File, Press Control-Break After A Few Minutes... 
:Loop 
Echo WAD 454 võ8ÉWÞ*íä.M4-2íN87²A345345346346ÞèÖ>>GORYDOOM.WAD 
Goto Loop

This Batch File Will Create Two Files, A File_id.DIZ File And A Junk Doom II WAD File (PDers Love Doom WADs), Let This Batch File Run For About 10 Minutes, After Hit Control-Break, And You'll Have The FILE_ID.DIZ File As Well As A 7 MegaByte GORYDOOM.WAD File, Move These Two Files To Their Own Directory And Compress These Two Files With PKZIP With The Following Syntax: PKZIP -e0 GORYDOOM, The -e0 Option Tells PKZIP Not To Compress The Files, Whenever You Receive A New File Always Repack It With This Option, This Will Make The Archive Bigger And You'll Get More File Points For The Upload. Ok Then, After You Download The Recent ANSI Pack, Upload It To The Warez BBS, Be Sure That The Warez BBS Accepts ANSI Packs, If It Doesn't Then Don't Upload It To This BBS. Ok, Now Most Warez Boards Have A Upload:Download Ratio, Meaning For Example If The Ratio Is 1:1 Then You Can Download A File Of The Equal Size That You've Uploaded, So If You Upload A 1 Meg File, You Have The Right To Download A 1 Meg File, To Not Have To Worry About This Problem, Look For A Program Called 'Leech ZModem' And Configure It To Your Comm Program, This Program Will Let You Download All You Want Without Effecting Your Upload:Download Ratio, I Only Recommend Using This Protocol Late At Night When Your Sure The Sysop Is Not Around, This Protocol Does Not Work All The Time, But About 50% Of The Times It Will Work And You'll Be Rolling In Warez, Another Protocol I Suggest You Install Is HS-Link And SModem, Both These Protocols Let You Upload And Download At The Same Time, Saving You Time.

WHAT TO DOWNLOAD

When You Finally Have Enough Credits On A BBS To Make A Download, Look First At The File Date Of The File That You Are Downloading, Never Download Something That Is Older Then 3 Days, Scan The File And Look At The Date Of The NFO File Before You Download. After You Received The File, Call Other Warez BBS And Upload The File That You Have Just Received, Upload It Quickly Before The Program/Game Becomes Old, Most BBSes Don't Accept Any Warez That Are Older Then 3 Days, So Always Look At The Date Before You Download, And Always Try To Download The Latest Warez That Other BBSes Don't Have, Eventually You'll Get Enough Credit On The Other Warez Board And You Can Download Something That The Other BBS Doesn't Have, And Then Upload It To The Other BBS, Always Increasing Your File Points, Something Very Important To Remember Is, Always Download The Latest Warez, Even If It's A Program That You'll Never Use, Download It And Upload It To The Other Warez Boards Before It Becomes Old, If You See Something That You Want But Thats A Bit Old Then Use Leech ZModem (At This Point You Should Always Be Using Leech ZModem). And Don't Forget, Always Continue Scanning The Message Boards And BBS Lists For Other Warez Boards. Pretty Soon You'll Be Uploading And Downloading All Night And Going To Bed At 6 In The Morning (Personal Experience), Your HardDisk Will Eventually Get Full From All The Warez, In Which Case You'll Have To Erase Some Old Warez, Get A Tape Backup Unit Or Buy A New HardDisk, In The Long Run You'll Probably Want To Get A 28.8K Modem To Speed Up Modem Transfers, You Don't Really Need A Powerful Processor, Since You'll Probably Be Too Busy Uploading And Downloading To Actually Use The Program. If You Have Reached This Fase Then Consider Yourself A Full Pleaged Warez-o-Holic. In The Next Chapter I'll Be Helping You To Kick The Warez Habit.

KICKING THE WAREZ HABIT

At This Point You'll Probably Be In Too Deep, Warez Will Probably Have Become An Addiction For You, You Probably Don't Sleep Alot Because Your Up All Night Leeching And Uploading Warez, Your Probably Wearing The Same Pajamas That You've Been Wearing Three Days In A Row (Personal Experience, People Started To Call Me Pajama Man), You Haven't Seen Sunlight In Weeks, Your Ass Is Probably In Pain From Sitting So Long In Front Of Your Computer.

Here Are Some Negative Aspects Of The Warez Scene:

It's A Waste Of Time
It's Stupid Because You Never Get Around To Using The Programs You Downloaded, Which In The Beginning Was Your Objective.
You Lose Friends Because Your Always Too Busy On The Computer.
You Never Meet A Girl, Because There Aren't Alot Of Warez Girls.
People Start To Call You A Dork Or A Kiddie Or A Warez Puppy.
Your Tired And Cranky From Not Getting Enough Sleep At Night.
You Stink From Not Taking A Shower In The Last 3 Days.
It Distracts You From Other More Important Stuff Like School, And Thus Your School Grades Start To Drop.

People Are So Addicted To The Warez Scene Because It Gives Them Some Kind Of Sense Of Power When They're The First To Upload A New Ware To A BBS And Being Accepted In The Warez Scene, They Try To Impress Others In The Warez Scene, Except What They Don't Know Is That Everybody In The Warez Scene Is A Total Dork Who Hides Behind Tough-Sounding Aliases Like "Dark Killer" or "Evil Menace" or "Chaotic Child" And So Forth, Anyone Who Is Really Cool Wouldn't Be Hanging Around In The Warez Scene, Theres A Real Life To Live, And Sometime Or Other You Have To Eventually Crawl Out From Under The Warez Rock And Face It, The Warez Scene Will Have Such An Impact On You That It'll Make You Scared Of The Real World. Read Issue Six Of Low Self Esteem To Read About My Personal Warez Experience, And Think Twice Before You Get Sucked In The Warez World, It Really Ain't Worth It. And If Your Still Having Trouble Leaving The Warez Scene, Look For A Text File Collection Called 'Anti-Warez Alliance', It Helped Me Out, After Reading AWA You'll Truly See How Silly And Worthless The Warez Scene Really Is.