New Sysop Tutorial — A-Net Online ANetBBS

Step 0 / 10

Welcome, sysop.

This tour walks you through the first ten things to do after installing ANetBBS.

Use ←/→ keys, swipe, or the arrows to navigate. Skip to anything you've already done — order doesn't matter much.

Estimated time: ~5 minutes.

Step 1 / 10

Change the seeded admin password

The first start auto-generates a random admin password and writes it to data/admin_password.txt (mode 0600). The web log also banner-prints it on first boot. Change it on first login.

Login as admin with that password
Top-right user menu → Change Password
Or sysop-side: Admin → Users → ✏️ Edit

Change my password

Step 2 / 10

Brand the BBS

Edit /home/stingray/anetbbs/.env and set:

BBS_NAME=My Awesome BBS
BBS_DESCRIPTION=Where the cool kids hang out
SYSOP_NAME=Stingray
BBS_DOMAIN=bbs.example.com
BBS_NODES=8

Or use Admin → Settings for the same fields (auto-applied without restart for non-restart-required ones).

Step 3 / 10

Pick a theme + draw a welcome banner

Profile → Themes — pick from 7 built-in themes (Modern Dark / Classic Green / Amber / Blue Ice / Matrix / Synthwave / Paper White)
Admin → Themes — sysop builds custom themes
Admin → BBS Menus → ANSI screens — paste a Pablo / Moebius .ans into the welcome / goodbye / newuser slots so terminal users see your art

Step 4 / 10

Customize message boards

Default install seeds 4 boards. Make them yours:

Admin → Boards → Add Board
Group with Category field ("General", "Tech", "FidoNet")
Assign per-board moderators from the boards admin list (the badge icon)

Step 5 / 10

Edit the BBS menu (telnet/SSH)

Everything is data-driven and customizable:

Admin → BBS Menus
Click the main menu, edit the items inline
"Add a sub-menu (one click)" wizard makes nested menus easy
Use action_type exec to run external programs (doors, weather, anything)
Use action_type ansi to show an ANSI art screen on demand

Step 6 / 10

Plug into FidoNet (echomail)

Want your BBS to share messages with the wider FidoNet?

Admin → Echomail Networks
Add a network (BinkP for FidoNet-style, QWK for Dove-Net)
Subscribe to areas you care about
Set up your AKA addresses on Profile
Per-user QWK download/upload at /qwk/

Step 7 / 10

Sysop control panel

Admin → Control Panel is your daily ops view:

Service status + Start / Stop / Restart buttons (web, telnet, SSH, rlogin, MRC bridge)
NodeSpy — see what every terminal user is doing in real time, with screen snapshots
Live who's-online list (web + terminal)
One-click journal viewer for each service

For service control to work, install deploy/sudoers.anetbbs:

sudo cp /home/stingray/anetbbs/deploy/sudoers.anetbbs /etc/sudoers.d/anetbbs
sudo chmod 0440 /etc/sudoers.d/anetbbs

Step 8 / 10

Spam & abuse control

NUV — set NUV_ENABLED=true so every new user needs your approval (Admin → Pending Users)
Bot gate — telnet visitors must press ESC or * twice to filter out port scanners (built-in)
IP bans — Admin → IP Bans, accepts CIDR and TTL
Word filter — Admin → Word Filter scrubs shouts, posts, PMs
File queue — set FILE_MOD_QUEUE_ENABLED=true to require sysop approval for uploads

Step 9 / 10

Door games + external programs

Admin → Door Games — register existing DOS / Synchronet / Mystic / native doors
Each terminal user gets a clean dropfile (door.sys / dorinfo1.def / door32.sys)
Or: drop ANY shell command into a menu via the exec action_type
Sample weather door already wired — Admin → BBS Menus → "Add sample items"

Step 10 / 10

You're set

That's the high-level tour. Everything else is in the docs.

Full documentation Launch checklist Control panel

Every feature is on a single hotkey, every menu is editable, every door is a JSON config. It's your BBS — make it weird.