Unfortunately you might face some hurdles when attempting to run an Internet server. There are two factors: security and bandwidth. The security hurdles are caused by the fact that outside people will be attempting to connect to your computer. The bandwidth hurdles are caused by the fact that outside people will be sharing your Internet connection and bandwidth.
A firewall is an application or network device that monitors traffic and automatically blocks suspicious activity. Most home (consumer) firewalls are configured to allow you to browse to any server (or type of server) on the Internet; however, they are also configured to block most incoming connections. This is a reasonable configuration because most consumers do not run server-based applications like web servers and Telnet servers.
However, the BBS is a server application and you will need to allow outside people to connect to it. This generally means you will need to configure your firewall to allow incoming connections to TCP port 23 (the default Telnet port). If you are running a firewall on the computer itself, you may need to allow the BBS executable files to access the Internet and accept incoming connections. This is done differently with each firewall application.
An IP address uniquely identifies a device on the Internet. An address allows software, like web browsers, to locate and communicate with the device. IP addresses are 32-bit integers but are written by humans in the format x.x.x.x, where each x is a byte (octet) of the address.
The domain name system allows human-friendly names to be associated with IP addresses. For example, www.thoughtproject.com has an IP address of 216.177.89.6. A domain name server (DNS) is used by software to translate a text name (typically entered by the end-user) into an IP address, which is then used by the software to connect to the device.
The first problem is the limited number of addresses that are supported under version 4 of the Internet Protocol (the primary protocol used on the Internet). An IPv4 address is 32-bits in length, allowing for a hypothetical maximum of about 4 billion unique addresses. However, the address itself contains some structural information (beyond the scope of this document) which further limits of the number of unique addresses that can be assigned to devices.
Unable to connect? Use the following checklist to determine the source of the problem.
Try connecting to "localhost" with a Telnet client (such as HyperTerminal) on the same computer running the BBS. This will verify that the BBS is able to accept incoming connections. A common problem is a firewall or security application that blocks the BBS software from connecting to the Internet or accepting incoming connections.
Try connecting to the BBS through another computer on the same local network. Test both the host name of the computer as well as the physical IP address. If a hostname connection works but an IP address connection fails, then you are probably using the wrong IP address. If the hostname cfails but the IP address works, then you have a name resolution problem. You will need to figure out why your computer is unable to convert a hostname into an IP address. The steps for resolving this problem are outside the scope of this documentation.
Get a friend to try connecting to the BBS over the Internet. Make sure you test both the hostname (if you know it) and the IP address.