The Cuban Bar in a telnet window

Telnet like it is 1995

The Cuban Bar is a telnet chat server created in 1995 at the University of Nijmegen by Patrick Hochstenbach (aka Fidel). The service has been up and running, with some gaps, since this date. This website provides access to the Cuban Bar chat server in its original form. All interaction with users world wide needs to be done via a telnet client or the web version.

Follow the next 3 steps to connect to the Cuban Bar and join our conversation.

If you are a bot, please follow this link.

1. Connect

To connect to the Cuban Bar you need to have a telnet client. Follow the steps below for your operating system.

Windows

Download and install PuTTY. Open a new PuTTY window and set the following parameters:

Host: cubanbar.hochstenbach.net

Port: 1234

Connection type: Telnet

OSX

macOS no longer ships with telnet. Install it with Homebrew, or use the web version below. Open a new terminal window (Cmd-Space and type terminal). Inside this window type:

brew install telnet

and then:

telnet cubanbar.hochstenbach.net 1234
Linux

On Linux telnet is installed standard in many distributions. For instance, on Ubuntu open a terminal window (Alt-Ctrl-T) and use the telnet command:

telnet cubanbar.hochstenbach.net 1234
Web

If you don't have a telnet client or don't want to install a telnet client, we offer also a Web version of the Cuban Bar at:

2. Create an account

When you are connected to the Cuban Bar chat server, you are welcomed by a login screen. Create a new account by typing new at the login prompt and follow all the steps.

3. First commands

To find your way around in the talker, here is a list of useful commands

To check who is in the talker type:

.who

Check who is with you in an area type:

.look

Move to another room type:

.go <area_name> (e.g. .go fireplace)

Read more help information type:

.help

Chat with other people in the room by typing any message:

bla bla bla

Quit the session:

.quit

Request a level 1 status:

.request <your email address>

Other telnet hosts

Do you like telnet? There are many other hosts available at this address: https://thedubber.altervista.org/other/telnetlist.htm.