Copyright: © 1996 Total Entertainment Network


What is TEN?

Well, if you really must know.

TEN is the Total Entertainment Network—an Internet entertainment service providing quality content and high action to gamers everywhere.

What does it take to be part of TEN?

With your computer, a high-speed modem, this software and one or more of the games we support, you can sign on immediately. TEN allows you to use your own Internet service provider (ISP) to connect to our service, or use one of our local access numbers and let TEN be your full-service ISP. Flexibility is our watchword.

Once on board, you’ll see we support some of the hottest current games around: Duke Nukem 3D, Warcraft and Command & Conquer among others. We’ll also have the inside scoop on the new releases: Deadlock, Panzer General and Big Red Racing. And there’s much, much more to come.

TEN is devoted to provide you with the ultimate experience in multiplayer online gaming. We believe that there is nothing quite like the thrill of human competition. Defeating a computer opponent doesn’t have nearly the satisfaction of creaming your pal across town (or across the country!). With the TEN service, our goal is to reduce latency (the bane of the Internet) to give you the quickest, cleanest, most immersive gameplay possible.

But, that’s only the start.

Our service is constantly expanding. World Wide Web browsing. Newsgroup reading. E-mail. Software support. We’ll evolve to meet your needs and ideas.

The Total Entertainment Network is an Internet gaming service, made by and for gamers.

Welcome to the community.


TEN mutterings and philosophies

The evolution will not be televised.

The evolution of entertainment will happen right here,
on your computer screen.

If you’ve spent any time at all online, you’ve probably sensed something big happening at the crossroads where technology and society meet. You can feel it in the passion for MUDs and MOOs, hear it in the chat rooms and IRC channels of the Internet, see it in the sudden fascination with multiplayer games and the Web. Something new is evolving in the realm of information and entertainment.

The Total Entertainment Network (TEN) is a group of people who are a part of that evolution. We are a company of gamers, programmers, net surfers, and chat room junkies who have a sense for just how cool the online world could be. For over 12 years, we have been creating bulletin board systems, playing games, and creating online gaming platforms—mucking about in the primordial ooze of a nascent medium. Now, we are developing the technology and ideas that will raise it to the next rung of the ladder.

Our initial goal is to become the best online gaming platform with the hottest multiplayer games around. Period. But supporting retail multiplayer games is only the starting point. We believe that everything we know about the online world today—games, chat spaces, e-mail, electronic publishing—will change quickly and drastically, in ways that no one can predict. Whichever way it evolves, we will be there.

We also believe that YOU will be an essential force in this evolution. We are not a broadcasting company that feeds its users what the Nielson ratings say. We are not a magazine or newspaper handing down our editorial opinions from on high. We are an interactive medium, and “interactive” means you play a big role.

The beauty of the online world is that in our electronic space there is so little distance between publisher and reader, producer and consumer—us and you. We will be online playing games and in the chat spaces with you; we will be talking, listening, and learning as we all explore the possibilities of online entertainment.

And we want to take your participation one step further. As we grow, we want to give you the tools to build it yourself. We will give you the power to create experimental chat experiences, to design add-ons to games, to publish your own ideas, and build your own worlds. The next best thing in online entertainment may not be handed to you, you may hand it to the world.

Something new is on the rise. A strange new beast is forming somewhere in the middle of games, people, tools, and technology. TEN will be there as it learns to crawl, walk, run, fly…


History of TEN

The Total Entertainment Network was the result of a cataclysmic collision between two rising stars in the world of online entertainment: Planet Optigon and Outland, Inc.

Planet Optigon was formed by Daniel Goldman in 1990. A longtime bulletin board system (BBS) user and online fanatic, Goldman spent several years working with Maxis, porting Sim City and other popular titles to various platforms, before returning to his dreams of online world domination. Together with designer Janice Linden-Reed, Goldman founded Planet Optigon and began developing a sophisticated, DOS-based service that would come to be known as the Total Entertainment Network.

Outland, Inc. was founded in 1991 by Three Guys From Palo Alto—Bill Lipa, Dave King, and Alex Beltramo. The company specialized in developing tools for gaming across the Internet. In 1993, Outland established the Internet’s first commercial gaming service, featuring the popular strategy game, Spaceward Ho!

In June of 1995, Planet Optigon and Outland were united in corporate matrimony. Together, they hatched plans for the conquest of cyberspace and began developing a Windows 95-based version of the network, which is what you see before you.


Membership terms

TEN ONLINE CUSTOMER LICENSE AND MEMBERSHIP SERVICE AGREEMENT

IMPORTANT: YOU SHOULD CAREFULLY READ THE FOLLOWING TERMS AND CONDITIONS BEFORE PROCEEDING WITH THIS PROGRAM OR SUBSCRIBING TO THE TOTAL ENTERTAINMENT NETWORK SERVICE. DOING SO INDICATES YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS, YOU SHOULD PROMPTLY EXIT THE PROGRAM. BY ENTERING INTO THIS LICENSE AND MEMBERSHIP AGREEMENT, YOU CERTIFY TO TEN THAT YOU ARE AT LEAST 18 YEARS OF AGE.

T E Network, Inc. (“TEN”), the owner of this software program (the “Program”), grants to you a non-exclusive license to use the Program and its related documentation (the "Documentation") only under the following terms and conditions.

LICENSE—what you can do with the Program

PROVIDED THAT YOU ARE AT LEAST 18 YEARS OF AGE, you may:

- 	Use the Program solely for accessing the Total Entertainment Network (the “TEN Service”);

- 	Copy the Program for backup purposes in support of your use of the Program in accordance with this Agreement;

- 	Copy and install the Program on more than one computer, or physically transfer the Program from one computer to another; and

- 	Transfer all of your rights in the Program under this Agreement to another person, provided the other person is at least 18 years of age and agrees to accept the terms and conditions of this Agreement.

YOU MAY NOT USE, COPY, MODIFY, OR TRANSFER THE PROGRAM OR DOCUMENTATION, EXCEPT AS EXPRESSLY SET FORTH IN THIS AGREEMENT. YOU MUST REPRODUCE AND INCLUDE THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE ON ANY COPY OF THE PROGRAM OR DOCUMENTATION. The Program contains copyrighted material, trade secrets and other proprietary material. You agree that except as permitted by applicable legislation, you will not decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble or otherwise reduce the Program to a human perceivable form.

TEN SERVICE—the nuts and bolts

PROVIDED THAT YOU ARE AT LEAST 18 YEARS OF AGE, TEN will provide the TEN Service to you on the following terms:

-	You will begin to receive the TEN Service when you accept this Agreement and complete the online membership enrollment process.

-	You are responsible for all phone charges that you incur while accessing the TEN Service, including but not limited to, long distance charges, equipment, and line cost; and any disputes about such charges or phone service are strictly between you and your telephone carrier.

-	You agree to pay the charges to TEN for your membership in and use of the TEN Service that are specified in the Membership area (available by clicking on the icon on the New Account screen). TEN reserves the right to modify the Billing Information at any time and the modified prices will become effective within 15 days of the date that TEN posts the changes to the Network.

-	You understand and agree that TEN may modify this Agreement at any time and in any manner. Any modification is effective immediately upon posting on the TEN Service or distribution by electronic or regular mail. YOUR CONTINUED USE OF THE TEN SERVICE FOLLOWING MODIFICATION TO THIS AGREEMENT SHALL CONSTITUTE ACCEPTANCE OF SUCH MODIFICATION. If any modification to this Agreement is not acceptable to you, you may immediately terminate your Membership as explained below.

TEN SERVICE—rules of the Network

When you use the TEN Service you agree to follow these rules:

-	TEN wants to make sure that the Total Entertainment Network is fun and enjoyable for as many of our Members as possible. You therefore agree to adhere to generally accepted standards of proper online behavior. TEN reserves the right to determine, in its sole discretion, what constitutes generally accepted standards of online behavior and may, without notice and at any time, terminate your membership if you violate any of such standards.

-	If you add content or invent characters, you represent that all material you upload to the Total Entertainment Network, including any characters you create, will be in the public domain. In other words neither you nor anyone else may own or claim to own or have exclusive rights, including the copyright or trademark rights to, such material, and you agree that TEN may use such material for any purpose, including re-publication and creation of derivative rights.

-	You agree that you will play “clean.” You will not upload to the Total Entertainment Network or disseminate via the Total Entertainment Network any obscene, false, defamatory or hateful material. While TEN does not actively screen the Total Entertainment Network for such material, if it receives a complaint from another Member or third party, it will review the material and may, in its sole discretion, remove such materials from the Total Entertainment Network and may terminate your membership in the Total Entertainment Network.

-	You are responsible for controlling who uses and how they use the TEN Services under your membership, and you agree that no one under 18 will have access to the TEN Service through your membership.

-	You understand and acknowledge that trademarks belonging to third parties may appear on the TEN Service. TEN will endeavor to identify the owners of all such trademarks on a separate screen.

YOUR INDEMNITY OF TEN

You agree to indemnify TEN against any claims or damages arising out of your breach of any of your warranties or obligations under this Agreement.

TERM

This Agreement is effective until terminated. You may terminate it at any time by destroying all copies of the Program and the Documentation, terminating your use of the TEN Service, and delivering notice to TEN (effective the day TEN receives such notice) of your desire to terminate. TEN may terminate your license and your membership in the TEN Service at any time if you breach any of the terms of this Agreement, fail to make any payments when due, or if any of the representations you make in this Agreement turn out to be false. Upon such termination, you must destroy all copies of the Program and the Documentation.

LIMITED WARRANTY; LIMITATION OF REMEDIES. THE PROGRAM, DOCUMENTATION AND THE TEN SERVICE ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM AND DOCUMENTATION AND USE OF THE SERVICES IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE ENTIRE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION. TEN DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE FUNCTIONS CONTAINED IN THE PROGRAM WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS OR THAT THE OPERATION OF THE PROGRAM OR OF THE TEN SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE.

IN NO EVENT WILL TEN BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY LOST PROFITS, LOST SAVINGS OR OTHER INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM OR TEN SERVICE, EVEN IF TEN HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY CLAIM BY ANY OTHER PARTY. IN NO EVENT WILL TEN BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES IN EXCESS OF THE STANDARD MONTHLY MEMBERSHIP FEE FOR THE TEN SERVICE.

Some states do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties or the limitation or exclusion of liability for incidental or consequential damages, so the above exclusions may not apply to you.

GENERAL

You may not sublicense, assign or transfer the license or the Program or your membership in the TEN Service except as expressly provided in this Agreement. Any attempt otherwise to sublicense, assign or transfer any of the rights, duties or obligations under this Agreement is void.

This Agreement will be governed by the laws of the State of California.

YOUR USE OF THIS PROGRAM AND OF THE TEN SERVICE ACKNOWLEDGES THAT YOU HAVE READ THIS AGREEMENT, UNDERSTAND IT AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY ITS TERMS AND CONDITIONS. YOU FURTHER AGREE THAT, TOGETHER WITH ANY OTHER LICENSE AGREEMENT BETWEEN US CONCERNING YOUR USE OF THE PROGRAM, IT IS THE COMPLETE AND EXCLUSIVE STATEMENT OF THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN US WHICH SUPERSEDES ANY PROPOSAL OR PRIOR AGREEMENT, ORAL OR WRITTEN, AND ANY OTHER COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN US RELATING TO THE SUBJECT MATTER HEREOF.


Select a registration method

There are two ways you can connect to TEN to start registration:

1.	Dial TEN’s toll-free registration number. When you click on CONNECT, your modem will dial an 800 number so you can register without paying for the call. After selecting this option, you will be prompted to choose one of our local access numbers for future connections to TEN.

NOTE: After the registration process, using one of our local access numbers to connect to TEN may incur a surcharge, so read the billing policies carefully.

2.	Use my existing Internet connection. Use this method if you already have a connection to the Internet established, (i.e., via your own Internet service provider (ISP) or an Internet connection at work). If you are using your own ISP to register, make sure you establish your connection before hitting the CONNECT button.

After you’ve chosen one of the two registration methods, click the CONNECT button to begin the new user registration process. For more information on ways to connect to TEN, see the connection settings section of this file.

Important note: Once your account has been created, you can change your method of connection anytime by hitting the SETTINGS button on the Sign On screen.


New user registration

Registration for TEN takes place online to ensure that the latest pricing and product information is available. There are four steps involved in creating a new account:

1.	Read Membership Terms. You must read and ACCEPT the TEN Membership Terms to establish a membership account on TEN. Declining the Membership Terms will cancel the registration process.

2.	Enter Name and Address. Please enter all the information requested on this dialog box. Hit the Tab key to move between fields.

3.	Select Payment Method. You can pay for TEN with any of these credit cards: Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express. In addition to your credit card number and expiration date, we ask that you provide us with your name as it appears on your card, as well as your current billing address. We use an ultra-secure method for transmitting your credit card number, so never fear.

4.	Create a Screen Name. The last part of the registration process involves creating a screen name and password for your TEN account. Your screen name is the name by which you will be known to other TEN members online. (For example, joebob.) Follow these guidelines when creating a screen name:

•	You can’t use any spaces in your screen name.

•	Your screen name must be at least 3 characters in length and no more than 10.

•	You can use any alpha-numeric characters, including the “_” symbol and the “-”.

Exceptions:

•	You can’t use any spaces in your screen name.

•	You also can’t use “TEN” or “Guide” as the beginning of your name.

•	Finally, you can’t use a “-” character for the fourth character of your screen name.

Once you’ve got a name, you’ll need to create a password for your account. Follow these guidelines when choosing a password:

•	Your password must be at least 6 characters in length and no more than 10.

•	You can use any printable keyboard characters.

•	We advise using a mix of numbers, letters, and funky symbols so you can’t be hacked.

•	Be sure your password won’t be easy for others to guess. In other words, don’t use your real name as a password, please.

When you’re done, hit OK to cruise on over to the Sign On screen.


Connecting to TEN

Signing on to TEN is way easy. Just type your screen name and password in the blanks, then hit CONNECT.

If you’ve got other issues, click the pic below:


SCREEN NAME

If your moniker is “filbert”, type it in. It’s not case-sensitive, so you can be filBERT, FILbert, FiLbErT, whatever.


PASSWORD

Type in your password here. Make sure your Caps Lock key isn’t on, since the password is extremely case-sensitive.


HELP

Brings up this file. And probably sticks you right here.


SETTINGS

Here, you can change the way you connect to TEN. You’ll have already set this up in the registration process, but if you need to make a change, this is the place. Check out the specifics on connection settings for complete information.

If you choose to use one of our local access numbers, pick a number from our list.

Remember, if you decide to connect through one of our local access numbers, you may incur additional charges to your account. Check your billing policy in the Customer Support area for more information.


NEW USER

If you’ve already registered, you don’t need to click this. But feel free to point your friends here if they want to start their own TEN membership. They’ll get to go through the account creation process.


CONNECT

If your name and password are correct, then go, man, go!


Connection settings

There are two different ways you can connect to TEN: through your own Internet service provider (ISP) or through one of TEN’s local access numbers.

When you first selected a registration method, you—wittingly or unwittingly—chose your default connection setting. If you chose “Dial TEN’s toll-free registration number,” you elected to use one of TEN’s local access numbers to connect. If you chose “Use my existing Internet connection,” you chose to connect via your own ISP. Don’t worry, you’re not stuck with this decision for life. You can change your connection setting right here.

Enough background. Here’s some info.

Select one of TEN’s local access numbers—This option allows you to use TEN’s preferred ISP to make the connection to TEN. In general, this should provide a clean, reliable connection. When you click this option, you’ll be prompted to select one of our local access numbers from a list. Choose the one nearest you.

Important note: if you choose one of TEN’s local access numbers to connect, you may incur additional charges to your account. Check out the billing information online in the Customer Support area for more details.

Use my direct Internet connection—You should select this option if you plan to use your own ISP (or direct connection from school or work) to connect to TEN. Make sure you have a quality ISP that provides reliable service! Remember, you must establish your Internet connection before signing on to TEN.


Exiting TEN

Hey, wait! Don’t leave.

But, if you must, get out of whatever game you’re playing and click on the Windows 95 close box (that little X in the upper right-hand corner of the window). You’ll get a disconnect confirmation and you’re gone.

If you’re involved in a game, be sure to properly quit out of it so you don’t mess up your score and get your online buds pissed at you in the process. And they will, if you drop them off TEN like a hot rock. So, show some consideration and exit quietly. Close the door before you leave.

We know you’ll be back.


TEN system requirements

Here are the system requirements you gotta have and the ones we highly recommend:

Minimum	Recommended

Computer	80486 66MHz DX2	Pentium 90 (or higher)

Operating System	Windows 95	Windows 95

RAM	8MB	16MB

Modem	14.4K baud	28.8K baud

Serial Port	16550 UART	16550 UART

CD-ROM Drive *	Double speed	Quad speed

Video Card	16-color	256-color

* 	A CD-ROM drive is only required if you are installing the TEN software from a CD-ROM, but may be necessary for any number of games supported by TEN. Check the system requirements of the individual games for more information.

Additional system requirements

Each game on TEN also has its additional system requirements. You’ll notice that these requirements are higher than the game in single-player mode, due to the fact that the TEN software and the game software must run at the same time. Check out the readme.txt file for the most up-to-date information.

Command & Conquer

•	486 66MHz

•	12MB RAM

•	VESA Local Bus (VLB) or PCI SVGA video card

Dark Sun Online

•	486 66MHz

•	8MB RAM

•	VLB or PCI SVGA video card

Deadlock

•	486 66MHz

•	8MB RAM

•	VLB or PCI SVGA video card

Duke Nukem 3D (shareware and full retail)

•	Pentium 60MHz

•	12MB RAM

•	VLB or PCI SVGA video card

Necrodome shareware

•	Pentium 60MHz

•	8MB RAM

Panzer General Online

•	486 66MHz

•	8MB RAM

Warcraft

•	Pentium 60MHz

•	8MB RAM (16MB recommended)


Software you need

To play a game on TEN, you must either buy or download the supported version of that game and install that game to your hard drive as per the game publisher’s instructions. Some games are exclusive to TEN, others are commercial products or shareware. Some games are ready to go right from the package, others may need a patch to get them up to snuff. Depends on the game. In the future, TEN will have some games built right into the system, so you won’t have to do any work to get up and running on those puppies.

TEN game installation

While the following list is complete as of this minute and second, it’s ever-changing as we add more and more games. For the latest game installation information, check out the readme.txt file that came with your TEN software.

Most game files and patches are available in the Customer Support area of TEN. From the Game Selector screen, choose SUPPORT and select DOWNLOAD FILES. If you can’t find what you need here, maybe it doesn’t exist. Files can also be found on our BetaZone

(www.ten.net/betazone).

Warning! It’s a really, really bad idea to install games in the TEN directory on your hard drive (c:\Program Files\TEN). All files under the TEN directory are subject to eradication during a TEN upgrade.

Command & Conquer

First off, you must have the retail version of Command & Conquer already installed on your hard drive. You’ll also need to download the ccten.exe file from either the Support area or the BetaZone. In addition, you’ll need to have a Command & Conquer CD in your CD-ROM drive. After that, you can hit the ground running. (When you’re first asked to locate the executable file for Command & Conquer, choose the ccten.exe file.)

Dark Sun Online

Dark Sun Online is currently in its beta test period. That means the programmers are having all-night pizza sessions and wielding economy-size cans of Raid. It’s also why you’re not going to find Dark Sun Online at your software store. You can, however, download the beta version from the BetaZone. Watch out, it's HUGE! 30 megs huge, in fact.

Duke Nukem 3D (shareware version)

To play the shareware version of Duke on TEN, you must have the latest shareware version installed on your hard drive. You can find shareware Duke at the following locations: our BetaZone, our FTP site (ftp.ten.net/TEN/games/duke), or 3D Realms’ site

(www.3drealms.com).

After you download the self-extracting archive, run it to install Duke to your hard drive. You’ll need to run the setup.exe program to configure the sound and control options. Make sure to turn music OFF.

Duke Nukem 3D (full retail version)

You’ll need the full retail version of Duke installed on your hard drive if you want to play it on TEN. You can buy the retail version at your favorite software store.

Panzer General Online

You can download a TEN-only version of Panzer General Online from our Support area or from the BetaZone. If you don’t have the Direct X 2 drivers, you’ll need to download those as well. Don’t forget the Panzer General Online manual if you don’t have the Official one from the retail game.

Warcraft software upgrade

While you don’t need to buy a retail version of Warcraft, you must download a special TEN version to play the game on TEN. The file can be found at the BetaZone or on our FTP site at ftp.ten.net/TEN/games/warcraft.

After you’ve downloaded the self-extracting archive, run it to extract the file to your hard drive. You’ll need to run the setup.exe program to configure the sound and control options.

Special installation notes

The first time you join or create a game on TEN, you will be asked to locate the game’s executable file (.exe). The Windows 95 file browser will then come up on your screen—use it to locate the game’s directory, and then click on the .exe of your game. If you should ever move the game’s files or directories, or install a new version of the game, you’ll have to update the path to the game’s executable. To do this, click on the JOIN or CREATE buttons in the TEN game Arena while holding down the Ctrl key. This will call up the Windows 95 file browser and allow you to point TEN to the location of the new game executable (.exe) file.


Game Selector screen

You’ll be here if you came in directly by launching TEN. If you entered TEN through a retail game, you’ll go directly to that game’s Arena Selector.

This is the action zone. Choose a game on the list and hit PLAY to dive in the mix. Make sure you have that game already installed on your hard drive!

Move your mouse cursor over the screen below for more info on buttons.

By the way, the SUPPORT area has lots of nifty stuff. Check it out.


GAMES list

Here’s a list of the current games on TEN. Double-click on a game title or click PLAY to enter that Arena. You must have the game you select installed on your hard drive for you to play.


PLAY

Once you’ve chosen a game you want to play, don’t delay. Hit this shiny, candy-like button.


HELP extinguisher

Squirt the fire extinguisher to see this help file. But, you probably just did that, didn’t you?


TEN alert

Watch this space for the up-to-date, fast-breaking news about TEN.


SUPPORT

Here’s where we hide the current billing info, program downloads, feedback and general mayhem. Check out the Customer Support area for the latest.


CHAT

Click here to enter the Chat Arena Selector. Gab to your heart’s content.


Customer Support area

This useful little area is especially important if you need to check your current billing status or change your password, but it’s got a few other functions as well. Click on a button below for a pithy description:


BILLING INFO

All that legal stuff. Click here to see all the pricing information and see how much time you’ve been on the system this month. You can change rate plans here, too.


DOWNLOAD FILES

No Navigator? Missing Duke? Your Free Agent not to be found? Just drop on by here and go download crazy. We don’t mind. Just be sure to read each program’s legal stuff after you grab the files.


CHANGE PASSWORD

Tired of that old, run-of-the-mill password? Make a change. Just type in your old password, and your new one twice (for confirmation!) and you’re set. It’s good to change it every so often just for safety.

There are a couple of guidelines for changing your password. First off, your password must be at least 6 characters long and no more than 10. Don’t use any crazy control characters or nothing like that. Just make sure that your password won’t be something that other people can easily guess.


SEND FEEDBACK

Think we’re doing a good job? Or not. Tell us! Leave your e-mail address if you want a response.


CUSTOMER SUPPORT

All those CS numbers are there in full glory. Give us a ring or, better yet, e-mail us for ultra-fast response!


USING THE INTERNET

Need to find out how to use all those spiffy Internet features with TEN. Check out this file.


ABOUT TEN

What we’re about. Our philosophy. Our ramblings. Nothing more, nothing less.


Chat Arenas

If, at the moment, you don’t feel very hungry for a game, try one of our delicious Chat Arenas. Go ahead, fill yourself up with some quality conversation time.

Here, you can find a player for a game, or simply type up a storm with a total stranger. Each game on TEN has its own Chat Arena and we’ve got a few specialized ones if you want to take a break from the game scene. Here’s a sample of what you might see:

Sonic Temple	Talk about the latest music releases, hip concerts, or bag on your most unfavorite artist.

Cinegog	Recent movie releases—thumbs up or down.

Den of Scum	Not for the weak at heart. A flame war of immense proportions.

Game-o-Rama	What’s the hottest game in the stores? Find out here, save some dough.

Once you select an Arena and hit GO, just start typing. Hit Enter when you have a complete thought. You can also click the paper airplane with the SEND battle markings.


Getting started with Dark Sun Online

Dark Sun Online is a TEN exclusive. It’s an online role-playing game (RPG) world set in the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Dark Sun universe. You must have the Dark Sun Online software to play, which can be found on the Web at www.ten.net/Beta/DSO/Lab. It’s a pretty fat download (30 megs worth), so grab a bite to eat while the sucker gets pumped through to your drive.

Important note: As long as you’re mucking about on the Web, it’s best if you download and read the Dark Sun Online manual (www.ten.net/Beta/DSO/Lab). That’ll tell you everything you need to know about creating a character, adventuring and combat in the harsh world of Athas. Remember that this software is still in beta, so don’t get yer loincloths all in a bunch.

The first screen that appears is the Dark Sun Online welcome screen. Mr. Bandwidth will pop up here to check your connection, but he’s pretty lenient. He’ll only toss you if you’re really messy. FYI, the welcome screen’s just a waypoint for the real stuff. Hit GO to travel to the Outer Sanctum.

The Outer Sanctum is a little like the astral plane. It’s a chat area where you can pick up some tidbits from TENguides or shoot the stuff with other Dark Sun Online players. Many of the commands are the same as on regular Arenas, so check there for the particulars.

Each player in Dark Sun Online has a TEN screen name and a Dark Sun Online character name. The Outer Sanctum shows a list of the TEN screen names, so don’t be surprised if you fail to see these names deep in the world of Athas.

When you’re ready to dive in, hit ENTER. Keep that sword and shield handy.


Arena Selector screen

Here’s where Mr. Bandwidth, the bouncer at the gates of TEN, checks your connection so you can choose which Zone and Game Arena you want to play in. Arenas are the launching point for games on TEN.

Swipe at the screen below if you’re curious about something.

As soon as you arrive, Mr. Bandwidth will start boppin’ to a funky jive. Sit back. He’s checking the quality of your Internet connection to TEN.

Most of the time, he makes a quick exit and leaves you to the good stuff. But sometimes, he gets a bit testy. Why? Your Internet connection might blow. Why again, you ask? Because your latency might not be low enough. Mr. Bandwidth does not lie. And he’s not the cause of your problems, so don’t be hard on the little guy.

Why are there different Arenas?

Since there can be hundreds, if not thousands, of people on TEN at once, we needed to break up the traffic a bit. Think of Arenas as the equivalent of Internet traffic lights. But, here on TEN, they’re always green!

Each Arena can hold somewhere about 30 people. An arena is full if it’s got a [image] symbol displayed in front of it. Try another. There’ll always be at least one open.

Enter an Arena

Just click an Arena and hit GO. You’re in like Flynn.


AVAILABLE ZONES

Three examples of TEN Zones are Pandemonium, Valhalla and The Abyss. Note that people from one Zone can’t see players in another Zone. Also note that some games—Dark Sun Online, for example—don’t have Zones. Stop by the Zones section for all the info.


ZONE RATING

This displays the quality of your connection to TEN. It ranges from “Optimal” (the best) to “Not Recommended” (the worst). Check out Zone Ratings for more details.


SELECT AN ARENA

These are the available Game Arenas. The number to the right of each Arena is how many people are currently in that Arena. A [image] symbol means the Arena is full and you have to choose another one.

The Arena names are designed to indicate what skill level of game the people therein are playing. For example, in the Duke Nukem 3D area, “Recruit” is an Arena for beginning-level players. Watch out for ringers, though.


GO

Once you’ve picked an Arena, hit this button to go to it.


GAMES hand

Shake this hand to go back to the Game Selector.


Zones

What the heck are Zones? Ethereally speaking, Zones are localized regions in cyberspace. They have nothing to do with physical geographic regions. You may be dialing from Seattle and get a better connection through our router in the midwest than through our California router.

Three examples of TEN Zones are: Pandemonium (physically located in San Francisco, California), The Abyss (physically located in Cambridge, Massachusetts) and Valhalla (physically located in Bay City, Michigan). Depending on how you connected to TEN, one Zone may be more efficient than another. For example:

•	If you connected through a TEN local access number, you’re more likely to get a cleaner connection through Valhalla.

•	If you’re on the East Coast and connected through your own Internet service provider (ISP), you’re more likely to get a cleaner connection through The Abyss.

•	If you connected through your own ISP and are not on the East Coast, you’re more likely to get a cleaner connection through Pandemonium.

This isn’t to say that all folks connecting with their own ISP will get a better connection through Pandemonium or The Abyss, it depends on a number of factors: clean phone lines, a quality ISP, the stars aligning properly, etc.

Remember that players in one Zone won’t be able to see (or play with!) players in another Zone. So, be sure to coordinate Zones with your pals before starting up.

If one Zone gives you a bad rating, try the other. Which brings us to (drum roll, please)…Zone Ratings!


Zone Ratings

Once you enter an Arena Selector, your pal and mine, Mr. Bandwidth will pop up muttering something about “checking Zones.” What he’s doing is seeing how clean the connection is to the Zone you’re in.

He’ll come up with any one of four Zone Ratings:

Optimal	Superb. Primo. It doesn’t get any better than this.
Typical for high-speed Internet connections (ISDNs, T1s and the like).

Recommended	Workable. Not too bad. Satisfactory.
Standard rating for modems with a good Internet service provider.

Acceptable	Fair. Better than nothing. Middling.
Hmmm. Not very pretty. There are ways to improve your connection.

Not Recommended	Yuck! Sorry state of affairs. Retch.
Jeez. Something must be wrong. Are you using a 300-baud modem?

If you get a rating of “Not recommended,” you can only chat. Don’t even think about playing a game. Try another Zone or sign on again. Maybe you just dialed into a dirty line.


Game Arena screen

At last! One small step away and the games begin.

As usual, pass your pointer over an area to get the straight dope.

Just select a game from the list and hit JOIN. The first time you CREATE or JOIN a game, you’ll be prompted to browse your hard drive for that game.

Remember, games with a [image] are full and you can’t enter. Forbidden games [image] have too heavy a bandwidth requirement for you to join.

If there aren’t any other open games, CREATE one of your own!


Location bar

Tells you where the heck you are. This reminds you which Zone you’re playing in and what Arena you’ve selected. For example, you might be in the Pandemonium Zone in the Veteran Arena.


WHO'S HERE?

The list of TEN members currently in the Arena. Players with a [image] in front of their name are busy playing and might not be listening for their name. Those that have a [image] before their name are muzzled so you won’t hear their yap.


BACK hand

Takes you back to the Arena Selector screen to choose a new Arena.


Mr. Bandwidth

The lovable Mr. Bandwidth will test your connection and give you the high sign if your Internet connection is worthy. You can also scope out a couple of other tidbits. Visit Mr. Bandwidth if you are curious about our little friend.

Your connection quality is displayed just below Mr. Bandwidth’s head. It’ll be rated either Excellent, Good, Okay or Forget it. If one of these words doesn’t look right to you, get the scoop about testing your connection. When the gauge below Mr. B’s head says “Testing,” the green bar shows how long the test will take. Don’t worry, you can still look through games and chat while he performs his little duty.

If your connection quality changes, Mr. Bandwidth’s expression will get happier or even more agitated.


Chat window

Everything you and the other peoples here type will appear in this window for the world to see. Scroll up and down through the text so as not to miss any stimulating conversation. Click here to find out more about chat (and the double-secret hidden features)!


Chat entry space

Enter your purple prose in this space and send the paper airplane a-flyin’. Hitting Enter will let it loose as well. You’ve got about 200 characters to use per message, so brevity is not a concern.


SEND airplane

This fires off your latest words of wisdom. Once sent, you can’t take them back.


GAMES

Here’s a list of all the current games. Games with a [image] are closed and those with a [image] icon are forbidden. You can’t get in these games no matter how hard you try. Closed games are full up, while forbidden games are off limits because your bandwidth is too low for you to join.


WHO'S PLAYING?

All the folks already involved in a game appear here. Click on a game in the GAMES window and you’ll see all the names of players in that game.


GAME DESCRIPTION

Here, you can see the charming text entered by the creator of a game. Click on a game in the GAMES window to highlight it and this description will appear. Since this was written by another player, the description may be useful, useless or a heap of barking obscenities.


CREATE

Fire up a new game. This is available only if you haven’t created or joined another game. And if your connection is “Forget it,” well…

After hitting CREATE, you’ll see the Create Game dialog box. Enter the name of your game, the number of players you want to play with (if appropriate) and a brief description of your game.


JOIN

Select a game from the window and hit JOIN to enter it. Remember that games with a [image] symbol have all their player slots filled and you can’t join. If their bandwidth requirement is too high, you’ll see the Forbidden symbol [image].


RANKINGS stone

We’ve left no stone unturned in our quest for features. Flip this rock over to check out player ranking information. You’re either awesome or you ain’t. See how you compare to the best.


Viewing ranking information

Think you’re good. Think again.

There are some awesome game players across the country, and with our comparative rankings via the RANKINGS button, you can see if you deserve to lick their grime-covered boots.

Clicking the RANKINGS stone at the bottom of the Arena screen brings up the following options:

Select which game you want to view from the pull-down box at the top and then choose one of the options below. You can see the ranks for everyone, yourself (plus/minus 10 other players), the top players (up to 100) sorted any way you choose or even rankings on individual players.

If you choose to view individual players, you can see how many times they’ve pasted you by selecting “display in a victory matrix.” This’ll show the players you selected (including yourself) and how many times they’ve killed each other. Suicides don’t count.


Creating a game

No games out there you want to play? Start one up yourself! Hit CREATE to get started.

In the upper left, type a witty name for your game. Next to that, enter the total number of players (including yourself) you’d like to have in the game. Remember that you can’t have more people in your game than Mr. Bandwidth says you can. How many can you have? Check your connection info for your bandwidth rating.

In the large box below, write out as detailed a description of your game as you want. You can also try to deter others with lousy connections or those you don’t deem worthy of your efforts. Be as creative as you want.

If you’re creating a new Duke game and want to play a custom user-created level, hit the ADVANCED button at the bottom for more details.

Click OK when you’re ready to go.

When the Duke Nukem 3D connection process begins (the big black box where you wait for others to join), you can instantly start the game by pressing L. You can also kick out any interlopers by hitting their player number form the top row of your keyboard.


Playing Duke Nukem 3D

If you’re playing Duke Nukem 3D and want to play using one of the many user-created levels out there, hit the ADVANCED button on the Create Game dialog box. You’ll need to have some custom user-created levels already installed in your Duke directory. Where can you get user-created Duke levels? Why, the FileFactory (www.filefactory.com), of course!

When the ADVANCED box opens, click the check box next to USER MAP and then choose a custom level from the pull-down list on the right. Hit OK when you’re satisfied with the results.

Remember, all people playing this user-created Duke level must have that level installed on their own local machine. In addition, all user-created Duke levels must be located in the same directory/folder as the Duke3d.exe file.

Once Duke loads, the person creating the game needs to choose “Start User Map” from Duke’s main menu to fire up the user-created level they chose.


Playing Command and Conquer
Playing Command & Conquer

Each time you crank up a game of Command & Conquer, you need to fill out an options dialog box. If you’ve played C&C before, this box should be fairly routine. If one of the terms doesn’t look right to you, break open the game manual. They didn’t write it for their health, you know.

First off, type in a name for your game in the top slot. Next to it, type in how many players you want in your game (from 1–4). Under SCENARIO, pick a mission, any mission. (You can even play missions from C&C scenario packs such as C&C: The Covert Operations.) Now, choose a SIDE from the pull-down menu.

The next three sliders set up starting parameters for your game. CREDITS, UNIT COUNT and TECH LEVEL should be self-explanatory. The boxes below set on/off variables. (AI PLAYERS can be clicked if you want computer opponents as well as humans.) Finally, write a description of your game in the big box on the right where Carol Merrill is standing.

Once you hit OK, C&C will fire up and you’ll get a box saying “Waiting for connections…” Don’t worry. It’s just waiting for the rest of the people to join in. You can hit Alt-Enter to minimize this window and yell at them in the chat area to get off their sorry butts and into your game.


Joining a game

Find a game you want from the GAMES window and hit JOIN. As always, you can’t enter any games with the [image] symbol, since they’re all full. Games with the [image] have too stringent a bandwidth requirement for you to play. When you’re joining a Duke game, check the GAME DESCRIPTION window to see if the creator is playing with a user-created level. If so, make sure you’ve got that level on your machine!

If you think you have reached your connection in error, click Mr. Bandwidth for more info or call AAA for a jump start.


Chatting with folks

Do you like striking up conversations with total strangers? Even if you aren’t, this area is perfect for finding just the right blend of players to join in your mayhem.

It’s trés easy. Plop your cursor in the long black area to the left of the paper airplane and start pounding away at the keyboard. When you exhale and finish a thought, click the SEND airplane or just hit Enter. Your message will whiz through cyberspace faster than another Microsoft stock split. And there it is. In living green. Your message to the world on screen.

If you just want to talk to one person, you can Whisper them a message. At the beginning of your line, just type (without the quotes): “/w <name> your message here” where <name> is the screen name of the person you want to whisper to. No one will see it but them. Meet that special friend. Poke fun at the guy typing in ALL CAPS. Party hardy.


Checking profile information

This one’s the secret, hidden function. If you didn’t look here, you might not have found out about it. You can view a person’s vitals by right-clicking on their name in WHO’S HERE. This brings up a pop-up menu list of options:

Profile

When you absolutely, positively have to find out the bio information on a person, here’s the place. Check out the art below for all the stuff.

Choosing BIO will show a ton of relevant (or irreverent) stuff about someone. It’ll show how long they’ve been a member of TEN, any alias they might go under, birth date, a gender, their relationship status, fav Web site and any miscellaneous junk. Remember that the user feeds all this data except the “Member since” line, so habius corpus and cogito ergo ludo.

RANKING will display the selected player’s game ranking, so you can see just what you’re getting into if you invite them to a game!

Speaking of which, you can enter your own Bio. Just right-click on your screen name from WHO’S HERE and select Profile from the menu. When that Profile window opens, hit the EDIT button. Fill in as many fields as you deem necessary and hit SAVE when you’re satisfied.

Shortcut! To open a Profile, just double-click on a person’s name from WHO’S HERE. Right clicking is only necessary for a couple of other functions.

Latency

Displays the current Latency History for the selected player. It’s the same graph as you would get when testing your connection. If there aren’t many spikes and the player is staying within the green and yellow areas of the graph, they’re in fine shape. Click here to get the low-down on latency.

Muzzle

Have you ever had one of those guys who never shuts up, he just keeps rambling on and on and on and on… Muzzle ’im! Selecting this will shut off his conversation until you decide to Unmuzzle the offender. Muzzled people have the evil [image] in front of their name.

Unmuzzle

Turns off the Muzzle feature.

Whisper

If you just want to say something to one specific person, select Whisper. This’ll put a “/w” and their screen name in the chat entry space and your words of wisdom will be for their ears only. You don’t need to use this menu when Whispering, just type “/w” (without the quotes) and their screen name to speak softly.


Name

It’s the TEN screen name of the user you chose. It’s you, if you chose yourself.


MUZZLE

Click this box if you want to block all conversation from this person. Unchecking it gives them the privilege of speaking to you again.


BIO

Changes the Profile window to show Biographical info about the selected player.


RANKING

Changes the Profile window to show Ranking information about the current player.


Profile window

This window changes to show either Bio or Ranking information, depending which button is selected.


EDIT

If you selected your own screen name, you can edit your Bio information by clicking here.


CLOSE

Takes you back to the current Arena.


Testing your connection

As soon as you enter an Arena, Mr. Bandwidth will begin testing your connection. Be patient. He’s going as fast as he can. Check out the gauge just below him to see how long he’ll take. While you’re waiting, chat a bit or see what games are being played.

When Mr. B’s done, he’ll present you with your connection rating du jour. There are four connection qualities you can get (see below). If you’re displeased and think you deserve better, give Mr. B a smack on his little buggy head. He’ll respond by showing you a Connection Report.

Connection Report

Your Connection Report shows a whole truckful of useful data. Mr. B’s words of advice appear at the top, telling you how many people can be involved in a game you create or join (this number includes you, by the way).

Below that, Mr. Bandwidth has already kicked the tires and provided a Zone check free of charge. Each Zone will have its own rating (where Optimal is the best and Not Recommended is the worst). Your Connection Rating will be one of the four below:

Excellent	Wow! USDA Prime. The best.
Normal for high-speed Internet connections (ISDNs, T1s and such).

Good	Playable. Average. Not too chunky.
Basic rating for modems with a good Internet service provider.

Okay	Mediocre. Could be better. Grade C.
Weird. We’ve got suggestions to improve your connection.

Forget it	Stinky. Blows chow. Get out of town!
Ugh. Must be something wrong. Checked your cables lately?

The two buttons at the bottom (LATENCY HISTORY and DIAGNOSTICS) will pop up more detailed info if you really want to go that far.


Latency History

Here you see the obligatory color-coded graph:

That squiggle running along the bottom of the graph is your latency over the past few minutes. In general, the lower it is on the graph, the better.

Along the left side of the graph is a colored bar which relates to your connection quality. If your average latency falls (without spikes) within the green area, you’ve got an Excellent connection. The higher your average latency is on the graph, the worse connection rating you’ve got. Zoom in and out of the graph with the + and - buttons in the lower left.

There’s more on latency. You can also check your Diagnostics or find out more about your Connection Rating.


Diagnostics

Your Diagnostic Information is basically a breakdown of your Connection Rating.

Connection speed is how quick you can send and receive data—your latency. The higher the percentage on this scale, the faster you can transfer data back and forth.

Stability is how clean your connection is to the Internet. The higher the percentage is on this scale, the more scrubbed down your connection is and the less spikes you will receive that break up your game.

Maximum players is the largest number of players that can be in a game with you (including yourself). This maximum number will change from game to game or may be gone altogether if not relevant to the game you’re playing. This number is directly related to your bandwidth.

Hope that helped! If not, you may want to try the latency or bandwidth help areas. Mr. Bandwidth might also be able to provide assistance with his little Internet tutorial.


About Mr. B

Ah, yes. Mr. Bandwidth. The Master of Modems. The Lord of Latency. The Concierge of Connection. He comes from a land that latency forgot. Packets roaming free in the wild. The secret formula for Vernors whizzing by the secret formula for Bubble Up. We took Mr. Bandwidth away from all that fun and put him to work.

Now for the nitty gritty. Mr. Bandwidth is a strange little guy we hired to make sure everyone could connect to TEN. He can’t actually fix your connection problems, you understand. But, he can give the boot to folks with lousy connections who would otherwise screw up everybody’s fun.

So, Mr. B is your friend. Unless you’re the one feeling his pointy foot on your butt.

We’ve tried to teach Mr. Bandwidth to moderate his usual savagery. Now, instead of just killing anyone with a crummy connection, he helps them make it better.

There are two important factors to playing fast-action games (like Duke Nukem 3D) across the Internet. The first is your Connection Rating which is determined by the latency of your connection. The second is the number of players you can join or create a game with, which is determined by your bandwidth.

You don’t have to give a damn about this stuff if you don’t want to. All you really have to know is what Mr. Bandwidth tells you when he checks your connection. Don’t try to play in Zones where you have an awful Zone Rating and don’t try to join games that are forbidden [image] due to your bandwidth.

Mr. B’s got his own little Internet primer if you’re interested.


Mr. Bandwidth explains the Internet

First, the bad news: the so-called information superhighway isn’t really much like a highway. It’s more like the road system in Outer Kazakhswana, complete with dead ends, switchbacks, washouts, cul-de-sacs, corrupt officials in toll booths, and backwater hellholes where they still eat human flesh. Yikes.

Now, the worse news: playing fast-action games across the Internet is a lot like staging the Indy 500 in Kazakhswana. It’s difficult, dangerous and frankly, kinda stupid. Or to put it in the words of the first and last Kazakhswanan pit chief: “Ho, ho, ho! Many dead!”

But it can be done.

First, let’s see what you already know about the Internet. Choose the metaphor below that, in your opinion, best represents the Net:

Model	“I believe the Internet is”

The “Al Gore” 	A busy commuter highway, with lots of vista points and Stuckeys.

Wired “Infobahn” 	Trés chic. Cyber-sexy. Vinyl. Chrome. Coooooooool.

The Hose	A really big hose, only for data instead of water and with a billion nozzles.

NetWarrior	A brutal, desolate place where the strong rule and wimps die screaming.

An example (kinda)

One of the more curious aspects of the Internet is that long-range communication has a whole lot less impact than in real life. It’s all about the cleanliness of your connection, the time it takes for a small bit of info to go back and forth (latency) and the amount of data you can pass back and forth (bandwidth).

Picture it like this. Say you’re on a playground where one loud, obnoxious, fast-speaking kid is across the park and a pudgy, laryngitis-ridden stutterer is staring you in the face only a few feet away. Following me so far?

If they both burst into “I Am the Walrus” at once, what’s likely to happen (other than you running for the nearest exit)? The bellowing, quick speaker will probably communicate “koo koo ka joob” faster and cleaner than the wheezing, fat boy. Even if the portly kid is so close, that he’s probably slobbering on your new Reeboks. The talking speed of the fast speaker could be considered bandwidth, while his speech clarity (compared to the hoarse-throated stutterer) could be considered latency.

Didn’t that clear things up? No? Ok, then check out the definitive answers under latency and bandwidth. Metaphors are tough work.

If you’re having latency, bandwidth, or connection problems (ones that aren’t a fault of the network), we can provide some pointers and helpful tips. Check out how to get even with Mr. Bandwidth.


The "Al Gore"

What?!? Get outta here!


Wired "Infobahn"

Not bloody likely.


The Hose

Nice try. You’re getting warmer.


NetWarrior

Ah! The right answer. Now that we’ve removed any comforting illusions you may have held, let’s continue.


Don't get mad at him, get even

Really, Mr. B isn’t there to screw you or kick you out of games. Think of him as a camp counselor, making sure everyone has fun and plays fair.

There are ways you can get a more reliable connection without having to park your rear at your local phone company to get a high-priced, clean ISDN line.

Latency concerns

One way latency increases is due to the number of jumps your Internet service provider has to make before you connect to TEN. Minimizing latency means getting the most direct link to your target as humanly possible. TEN’s preferred Internet providers are set up so that you should never have more than a couple of hops before you arrive here. Less robust providers may end up plowing through a dozen or more routers. With that kind of latency, you’ll be lucky to play Parcheesi.

Latency can also be affected by other factors. General congestion on the Internet (primarily during peak surfing hours) or through your Internet provider can add significantly to your latency.

Bandwidth issues

Bandwidth is directly related to the overall speed of your connection. The faster the modem you have, the better. Don’t try to connect to TEN with your 300 baud acoustic coupler—it ain’t gonna work.

Don’t get overly pre-occupied with the speed of your modem, though. Even though you may have the be-all, end-all of 28.8 modems, you still may get a flaky connection if you use an Internet provider who runs his business out of some flooded Chicago basement on rat-eaten wires. To have the best gameplay, all players should have reliable, high-speed modems with squeaky-clean Internet providers.

General stuff

In the long run, if you have an Internet service provider that consistently gives you crappy results, you may need to make a change to use TEN effectively. Dialing in through one of our local access numbers should improve your connection to TEN.

You might also have line difficulties or modem problems. Older modems tend to be less efficient, and can add significantly to your latency. Line problems are a little trickier to deal with. You could always try negotiating with Guido and Nunzio at the phone company, or make sure your cat’s not chomping on the phone line.


Cruisin’ the Web

With a TEN membership, the Internet and the World Wide Web are at your feet. Be sure to wipe before entering. Once connected to TEN, you can go Web surfing to your heart’s content. Right now, you’ll have to use a third-party program to browse the Web, such as Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer, but when this feature gets integrated into TEN proper, watch out!

FYI, most of this stuff is a little redundant if you have your own Internet service provider, but for those folks who can only get to the Internet through our local access numbers, it’s a godsend!

Netscape Navigator

To you new folks, Navigator is a tool to browse the World Wide Web. You can get it just about anywhere (try www.netscape.com), or snag it at your local software store. Be sure to register!

Once you fire up Navigator, you’ll need to follow a few instructions to get it running properly:

1. 	Select “Mail and News Preferences” from the Options menu.

2. 	Click the Servers tab.

3.	Type mail.ten.net in the space after the words “Outgoing Mail (SMTP) Server” and "Incoming Mail (POP) Server."

4.	Input your TEN screen name (example: joebob) where it says “Pop User Name.”

5.	Finally, type news.ten.net on the bottom after “News (NNTP) Server.”

When you’re done, hit OK to save your prefs. Surf’s up!

Microsoft Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer doesn’t have mail or news features yet, so sorry. But if you download the program from us in the Customer Support area and install it, it’ll be all configured to cruise the Web no problems. Now that’s plug-and-play! You listening, Mr. Gates?

E-mail and you

Yes, TEN gives you e-mail as well. Conserve those stamps. Write to those long, lost friends. There’s a number of e-mail programs you can use (including the e-mail portion of Navigator), but we’ve got Eudora Light up in our Customer Support area for your convenience.

Your e-mail address on TEN is your screenname@ten.net (for example, joebob@ten.net)

Eudora Light

Eudora is the granddaddy of electronic mail programs. It’s little nephew is Eudora Light, a freeware version with fewer features. The easiest way to set up Eudora Light is to download it right from our site in the Customer Support area. It’ll come pre-configured for TEN and you only have to do one little thing after you launch it.

1.	Pull down the Tools menu and choose “Options…” You'll see your TEN e-mail address, but the Real Name field will be blank. Go ahead, fill it in and hit OK. All done.

If you didn’t download Eudora Light from us, shame, shame. All the more work for you.

You’ll probably get a dialog box staring you in the face when you first load the program, but if you don’t, enter the following info by pulling down the Tools menu and selecting “Options…”

1.	Type your TEN screenname@mail.ten.net for your e-mail address. (Example: joebob@mail.ten.net)

2.	Check to ensure that Winsock (the default) is selected for your connection method and that you've entered your real name.

When Eudora Light prompts for your password, just use your TEN password.

Newsgroups around the globe

You can also have TEN provide you with all the Usenet newsgroups you can eat. And, boy, you can get stuffed pretty quickly. Newsgroups are an electronic version of a bulletin board where everyone writes about a very specialized subject. Examples of newsgroups are rec.sports.football.pro and alt.flame.barney.die.die.die.

Although most Internet providers give access to newsgroups, TEN subscribes a vast majority of them. So, if your ISP doesn’t let you read alt.jerrygarcia.resurrection, and you can’t live without it, try us. It’s not too hard to set up.

There are far too many newsreaders to name, but we’ve got Free Agent up in our Customer Support area for your convenient download.

Free Agent

Free Agent is a freeware program for reading and sending articles to Usenet newsgroups. It’s a trimmed-down version of Forte’s Agent program which has a bunch more features. As with Eudora Light and Microsoft Internet Explorer, if you download Free Agent from us, it’ll be set up to run pronto, with only a couple of steps.

1.	When you first run Free Agent, you’ve gotta accept the membership terms. Read them carefully.

2.	On the next window, type in your vitals. Your News (NNTP) Server is news.ten.net, your Mail (SMTP) Server is mail.ten.net.

3.	Be sure to say Yes when asked to check newsgroups. TEN subscribes to quite a few, so it may take a little time. After that, you’re ready to go.

If you didn’t grab Free Agent from our site, you’ve got a little leg work to do:

1.	Go to the Options menu and select Preferences.

2.	Click the User Profile tab and type your TEN screenname@ten.net for your e-mail address. (Example: joebob@ten.net)

3.	Now, click the System Profile tab and enter news.ten.net for the News Server and mail.ten.net for the Mail Server.

Hit OK and you’re primed to become another newsgroup zombie—coming up only for air and the occasional dinner call.


What is latency?

To put it simply, latency is the time it takes for you to send a packet of info to a site and for the site’s response to get back to you. Contacting really distant regions (like, on another continent) may take more time and sometimes even local sites can be hard to reach, because the road the data takes to get there is full of twists and turns.

Let’s take an everyday, common Web task. Suppose you’re connecting to the Net through Big Bob’s Discount Web Hut in Los Angeles and heading for a German site with detailed instructions for building a fusion bomb. Bob’s Web Hut tries to find a route. First, it sends your signal through Chuck’s big regional server. Chuck shunts you to a big hub in Detroit. Detroit plugs into a site in Germany (“where there are no laws”), which then zips over to Gregor’s regional server and finally waltzes up to Nuke-it-Yourself (www.nukeemsilly.com).

Your signal has bounced between five different routers before reaching its destination. The amount of time it takes for the nuke site to bounce an information packet back to you is referred to as “latency,” and is usually measured in milliseconds.

Suppose you have a relatively high latency—a second. Since you can wait an extra second for the first atomic-core blueprint to start rezzing, this is no big deal.

However, if you were instead trying to play a rousing round of Duke Nukem 3D, a one-second delay would send you straight to Chop City. A delay of one second between you hitting your fire button and that rocket whooshing off to roast your pal, is ugly. Way ugly.

In other words, latency is a fact of life on the Internet. Minimizing it is the hardest issue, but there are things you can do to help. Mr. Bandwidth has some entertaining notions of the topic of minimizing latency. Check him out.


What is bandwidth?

Now, latency has nothing to do with how fast your modem is. Bandwidth, on the other hand, has a whole lot to do with it. The Golden Rule of Bandwidth is this: the more people participating in something, the slower that something gets. Say you’re playing Duke Nukem 3D. When you fire off a missile, that data has to be shot over to all other players. If there’s just one other player, the info travels really quick. But, if you’re in a six-player game, that same missile packet has to zip to all five other people so they can tell if they’re suddenly paste or simply hit by the splatter. That takes more time.

Many greasy old cyber-relics will yap your ear off about how fast things used to be, back in hippie days when there were only 14 people who knew what the Internet was—but that was then, and this is now.

Anyway, when it comes to games, the problem is this: every game has a “bandwidth budget.” Each and every player who joins that game consumes part of the budget. The amount they use up varies for several reasons, but modem speed is the primary factor. A game that could support eight 28.8k modem users might only be able to support four 14.4k modemers—even if the 14.4 guys have the Lamborghini of all Net providers.

Think of it this way. There’s only so much room in each game. The slower your modem, the fatter you get. A game that could fit eight slim 28.8k modem users might only be able to fit four pudgy 14.4k guys.

When you’re on TEN, Mr. Bandwidth will analyze your connection to tell you how good your gameplay quality will be (latency) and how many players you can be in a game with (bandwidth). But, sometimes the Net gets wacky. If your Excellent connection one day tells you to Forget it, don’t panic. Try retesting it first. You may have been caught in a brief spike.

If you’re really having problems, there are some things you can do to increase your bandwidth. Mr. B will be happy to explain!


What the heck are you talking about?

Internet? Latency? ISP? Help! I ain’t got a clue!

No prob.

The Internet and modems

Let’s begin assuming you know absolutely nothing about the Internet. Start with a clean slate. Basically, the core of the Internet is a whole ton of computer networks around the globe that people like you and me can connect to. They are all linked up so that people on one computer network can access data on another network in the system. We can connect (or “sign on”) to one of these networks either at the network computer’s location or through our home computer.

To connect to these computers from our house, we have to have a computer, a phone line and a connection device called a modem. Now, modem stands for MOdulator/DEModulator and is a device to convert digital signals into tones so they can be sent over regular phone lines.

How does all this relate to the Internet and this World Wide Web?

Da Web

The Internet is the massive linking of computer networks with a techie overtone. The World Wide Web is simply a cosmetic makeover of all that raw data so that the average person can easily get the information—sometimes relevant, but generally completely irrelevant—about anything you do or don’t want to know. On the Web, it’s sometimes hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. Especially if you’re allergic to chaff.

You access the Web by using a computer program called a “browser.” The most popular ones are made by Netscape and Microsoft. To connect to a location on the Web, you need to find its Universal Resource Locator or URL (pronounced “you-are-ell”). An example URL address would be www.ten.net. When typing this into your browser, it is preceded by the letters “http,” a colon “:” and two forward slashes “//”. So, when you’re typing our address into your browser, it would appear as: http://www.ten.net. Now, you can finally see for yourself what all those TV ads are blaring when they dropkick their URL at you.

Mail without stamps

One of the more handy features of the Internet is the ability to instantaneously shoot off an electronic mail message to a friend across town or across the country. Electronic mail (or e-mail, for short) can be sent to anyone that has an Internet account through school, work or home. You read an e-mail message either through your Web browser or via an e-mail program like Free Agent.

You’ll need to know their specialized e-mail address which looks something like gilmour@surfcity.com. Gilmour is the person’s name, surfcity is the computer service’s name and com is the type of service the computer is. This last part can be one of the following: .org (organization), .com (commercial), .net (network), .edu (education) or .gov (government). Your e-mail address on TEN is your screen name @ ten.net. (For example, joebob@ten.net).

In conclusion (for now)

This is really only the tip of the snowcone. There’s a lot more stuff out there about FTP (File Transfer Protocol) sites, Java and the overall lay of the Internet landscape. If you’re really curious, pick up one of those “Dummies” books by IDG or just peruse your local bookstore. They’ve got racks and racks of Internet tomes, one of which will be just your speed. We’ve also got some information on Mr. Bandwidth and the Internet, latency and bandwidth if you need it. There’s also some hints on how to choose your own Internet service provider.

Good luck!


Where do I get the latest news and info about the TEN service?

Good thing you asked! While we try to keep the Help file as up to date as possible, circumstances beyond our control prevent us from having a new Help file on a semi-regular basis. The best place to find out about any these frequently asked questions (FAQs), troubleshooting solutions and the like is in TEN’s BetaZone. Just point your browser at www.ten.net/betazone.

You can also check out TEN’s home page at www.ten.net (for general and corporate information) and the FileFactory at www.filefactory.com (for shareware, patches, uploads, user-created Duke Nukem 3D levels and other chaos).


How do I connect to TEN?

With TEN’s client software, you can connect to TEN though your own Internet connection or from one of TEN’s local access numbers across the United States (which provide a PPP Internet connection). You can reach TEN through any Internet service provider (ISP) which provides a PPP or SLIP account. Online services such as America Online, Prodigy and CompuServe do not offer PPP or SLIP accounts and are not acceptable means to connect to TEN.


How can I tell if my service provider is compatible with TEN?

In general, you can access TEN through any Internet service provider that gives you a SLIP or PPP. TIA and other SLIP emulators won’t work and neither will online services like America Online and CompuServe.

You will need to determine if you TCP/IP protocol is properly configured, however.

To determine if your TCP/IP protocol is configured properly for TEN, try “pinging” a TEN site via its IP address. PING (Packet INternet Groper) is a diagnostic utility which sends packets of information to a known IP address and waits for a reply. To ping our site, follow these steps:

1.	Establish your Internet connection through your Internet service provider.

2.	From the Start menu, select Programs --> MS-DOS Prompt. This will open a DOS prompt.

3.	At the DOS prompt, type ping 204.162.251.2

If you receive a “Bad command” error, you will need to find the ping.exe file. Generally, it’s located in your Windows directory. Once you have located ping.exe, move to that directory and repeat step 2 above. If you receive a reply from the ping, basis TCP/IP connectivity is functioning properly. Now, try pinging the name of the machine rather than the address:

4.	At the DOS prompt, type ping ftp.ten.net

If you receive a reply from this ping, your DNS settings are working properly. If you don’t get a reply and you can ping IP addresses, you should check your DNS settings.

DNS settings

Follow these steps to check your DNS settings:

1. 	From the Start menu, select Settings --> Control Panel.

2. 	When this window opens, double-click the Network icon.

3. 	From the list of installed components, select “TCP/IP” and click the Properties button.

4. 	Select the DNS Configuration tab.

5. 	Be sure the Enable DNS radio button is selected.

6. 	If you are using a TEN local access number as your Internet service provider, the DNS Server Search Order should be 204.162.251.2. If you are using a different ISP, the DNS Server Search Order should reflect the address(es) given to you from your provider or system administrator.

If no DNS addresses are present, contact your system administrator, call your ISP directly or refer to the documentation provided by your ISP.

7.	Keep clicking OK until you return to the Control Panel window.

If both pings are successful, you should be able to connect to TEN.

Remember, a successful connection to TEN does not guarantee a high-speed connection or low latency by any stretch of your vivid imagination.

tracert command

You can also try the same procedure above use the tracert (Trace Route) command to see how many PoPs (Points of Presence) you’re going through to connect to TEN. (Example: from the DOS prompt, type tracert ftp.ten.net.)

More than 10 PoPs is getting dicey; more than 20 means you’re probably dialing in from Mars.

If neither ping is successful, you are not configured properly to connect to TEN, or you do not have an acceptable account type (you need a PPP, SLIP or direct connection).

Note: ping and tracert are utilities installed when Windows TCP/IP Network Protocol is installed.


Is TEN accessible from all existing online services?

No way! TEN is not accessible from independent online services such as America Online, Prodigy and CompuServe. If you have any questions regarding your Internet service provider account, we recommend that you contact your individual ISP.


I forgot my password. Hellllp!

Whoa! Don’t panic. Call our Customer Support at 1-800-8040-TEN during regular business hours.


How do I disable call waiting?

Oh yes. It is 100% necessary to disable call waiting if you want to connect to TEN without interruption.

First, check with your local phone company to verify the call waiting disable code. *70 is very common with touch tone phones and 1170 is most often used with rotary phones. Within Windows 95, you can disable call waiting under Dialing Properties.

The following steps will disable call waiting in Windows 95 (where *70 is the call waiting disable code):

1. 	From the Start menu, select Settings --> Control Panel.

2. 	When this window opens, double-click on the Modems icon.

3. 	Click the General tab.

4. 	On the General tab, click the Dialing Properties button.

5. 	Click the box in front of the “This location has call waiting. To disable it, dial” prompt. Then use the pull-down box to the right to select *70.

6. 	Keep clicking OK until you return to the Control Panel window.

Some communications software has additional locations where this option can be configured. In those cases, the software may override the Windows 95 settings. If this happens, consult your communications software reference manual or call the manufacturer to find out how to change the call waiting code.


How do I use TEN's local access numbers to connect to TEN?

After you finish installing TEN, launch TEN from the Start menu by selecting Programs -->
T E N and choosing Total Entertainment Network.

Once TEN has been launched and the Sign On screen appears, follow these directions:

1. 	Click the SETTINGS button. The Connection Settings window will open.

2. 	Choose the option “Select one of TEN’s local access numbers” and click OK. The Select Local Access Number will open.

3. 	In this window, type the area code where you are dialing from to jump to that area or scroll through the list of numbers until you reach the nearest area code and phone number.

4. 	Once you pick a number, click the OK button to return to the Sign On screen.

Type in your screen name and password and you’re connected.

Remember, if you use one of TEN’s local access numbers to connect, you may incur additional charges to your account. Check out the billing information online in the Customer Support area for more details.


How do I use my own Internet service provider to connect to TEN?

Before signing on to TEN, you’ll need to connect to the Internet through your Internet service provider using either a SLIP or PPP account. (If you’ve got a direct connection through school or work, go through your standard Internet connection procedure.) Remember, America Online, Prodigy and CompuServe don’t have SLIP/PPP accounts, so you can’t use them to connect. Also TIA and shell accounts are not compatible with TEN.

Once you’ve got an Internet connection established, launch TEN from the Start menu by selecting Programs --> T E N and choosing Total Entertainment Network. When the Sign On screen appears, follow these instructions:

1. 	Click the SETTINGS button. The Connection Settings window will open.

2. 	Make sure that the “Use my direct Internet connection” option is checked, then click OK.

When you type your screen name and password, you’re connected.


How do I choose an Internet service provider?

Not all Internet service providers (ISPs) are created equal. It’s not as simple as selecting a telephone long-distance carrier. For the most part, all long-distance phone companies have roughly the same quality connection and service. They have to, wouldn’t they? Otherwise they’d be out of business!

Choosing an ISP is more akin to selecting an airline to travel on. Some may be cheaper overall, but will skimp on the peanuts and constantly overbook. The more expensive ones may cost more, but provide warm hand towels after meals. ISPs are the same way. Not all cheap ISPs are the best buy, nor are all expensive ISPs the bee’s knees.

The best way to find a service provider is to ask your friends which ones they’re using. They have the most experience with their particular ISP and can tell you if it bites or rules. Barring the advice of your buds, here are some questions you can ask the ISP sales reps themselves:

Q:	What types of connections are available? SLIP, TIA, PPP?

Remember, only SLIP and PPP accounts will be able to connect to TEN.

Q:	Will I be able to connect within my local calling area?

If there isn’t a local number within your calling area, you’ll be paying toll charges. And, boy, can they add up quickly!

Q:	How much will the service cost?

This is the biggie. ISP costs can vary wildly. Generally, ISPs charge a base monthly rate, some will add on a per hour charge after a specified number of hours. Some ISPs offer both types. Depending on how much time you plan to be logged on, you can choose which type of account you want. For instance, if you plan to spend a great deal of time logged on, you might want to consider a flat monthly rate account which gives you unlimited hours of time per month. If you don’t plan on spending a great deal of time logged on, you may be able to find an account with a lower monthly rate that includes a limited amount of hours per month (any time over your specified number of hours will be billed at a per hour rate). It’s a matter of shopping around.

Q:	How many subscribers does the ISP have, and how fast have they been growing?

Not only is the Internet expanding, but the number of people jumping on is growing like kudzu. Good ISPs gain subscribers quickly, but sometimes growth can overwhelm their systems. Ask about peak periods of use and the frequency of busy signals when dialing in.

Q:	What is the ratio of subscribers to modems?

When you dial into your ISP, your modem connects to theirs. Busy signals mean the ISP’s modems are all in use. A ratio of 15 to 1 or 20 to 1 could mean a lot of busy signals.

Q:	What support options are provided?

When will someone be able to answer technical questions? If you are planning this account for your home, will there be someone available to help you when you need it, or just during business hours? Are there e-mail representatives online? How often do they respond to their e-mail? Questions on these lines could save you headaches in the future.

Q:	What services does the ISP offer?

Some ISPs only offer the basic services, like e-mail, 1 megabyte storage space on their server, and a limited number of newsgroups to name a few. Others will let you design and post your own Web site and provide you with some software. Make sure that the ISP offers the services you are interested in and doesn’t go overboard on services you couldn’t care less about.

Q:	Does the ISP offer a fast Internet connection?

Online time costs money. Why run the risk of extra charges or suffer the wait of slow downloads? In the end, faster connections enhance all your Internet activities. Also, faster Internet connections will enhance your experience on TEN!

These may seem like tough questions to ask, but you’ll definitely find it worth it in the long run. If an ISP sales rep balks at answering some of these questions, well…

There are other Web sites you may want to investigate for more information on Internet service providers:

http://www.thelist.com	Fairly comprehensive list of ISPs in the USA and International

http://www.hugelist.com	Another large list of ISPs and Internet services

http://www.yahoo.com	Check out Computer / Internet / Internet Access Providers


What is a UART and what kind do I need?

A chip known as a Universal Asynchronous Transmitter and Receiver (UART) is fundamental to serial date communications. In short, this device converts parallel data (e.g., 8-bit bytes) into a serial data stream which can be transmitted over a telephone line.

So, what does that mean to you?

Internal modems are equipped with their own UARTs. External modems, however, utilize the UART incorporated into your computer’s COM port. If you are using an external modem, it is essential that you understand what type of UART your COM port is using. If you use an internal modem, there’s a good chance that the device will be equipped with a suitable UART. Nevertheless, you should check it to confirm.

Older UARTs (8250 and 16450 UART) were typically designed before high-speed modems and simply do a poor job at high data rates. This means that the older UART will not give you a good performance from your external modem. Though your modem might connect at 28.8k bps, your computer and modem will talk at a slower speed. Since many of TEN’s services are dependent on a high-speed connection, we require that you own a modem with a high-speed UART (16550 UART).


How do I tell what kind of UART I have?

Windows 95 will test your UART for you and let you know what kind you have. Follow these steps:

1. 	From the Start menu, select Settings --> Control Panel.

2. 	When the window opens, double-click on the Modems icon.

3. 	Choose the Diagnostics tab.

4. 	Click the line that shows your modem in the “installed” column.

5. 	Click the “More Info” button.

There’ll be a line with the word UART on it. That will display your modem’s UART.


Do I need the TEN CD-ROM to install the TEN software?

Nope. You can get the latest version of the TEN software from our FTP site at ftp.ten.net. Currently, the file requires approximately 5 megabytes on your hard drive and will take approximately 40 minutes to download using a 14.4 modem. 28.8 modems will download the file way faster, requiring only 15–20 minutes to download.

As TEN grows, the number of files will most definitely increase, so you may need the CD-ROM at that time.


Why can't I resize the Game Arena screen?

The Game Arena screen is set at a fixed size. If your resolution is set too low (640 x 480), the Game Arena will fill the entire screen and obscure the Windows task bar. Changing your resolution to 800 x 600 or higher will make the Game Arena window smaller, allowing you access to the desktop and task bar.

Here’s how to change your resolution:

1.	From the Start menu, select Settings --> Control Panel.

2.	When the window opens up, double-click the Display icon.

3.	Click the Settings tab.

4.	In the Desktop Area section, drag the indicator (the down-pointing arrow) to the 800 x 600 selection.

5.	Click OK. A dialog box will then appear that your computer must be restarted for the resolution change to take effect.

6.	Click Yes. Your computer will then restart with the new screen resolution.

You can also switch between TEN and other open applications by hitting Alt–Tab. If you try this during a hot and heavy game of Duke (or some other fast-action game), you’ll be sorry. Not only will you get wasted on the battlefield, but you may crash the game.

Note: not all video cards support the 800 x 600 screen resolution. Check out the manual of your video card before attempting this switch.


Does TEN support international accounts?

Unfortunately, no. We don’t yet have the facilities to support world-wide accounts, even if you have a credit card that is valid in the U.S. and Canada. We may be adding this ability in the near future, so stay tuned.


Duke is really sluggish. What can I do?

Try closing any other Windows applications you have running. Also, make sure that you have music disabled in Duke and that sound effects are being mixed at 4 voices/11khz (the default). There’s a bug in the current version of Duke that causes strange effects when these options are different.

If these suggestions don’t work, check your Turbo button on the case of your computer. Is that pressed in? Good. You’ll need all the speed you can get.


Whenever I turn on music, Duke chokes. What's up?

There may be probs with Duke’s sound drivers conflicting with network packet stuff. You’ll need to run Duke’s setup program (setup.exe) and turn off music. Fire up the setup program and select “Sound Setup” from the main menu. On the menu that pops up, select “Choose Music Card”. Choose the “None” option from the list. After you save your settings, your problems should be solved.


I turned off music, Duke still chokes. Arrrgh!

You might need to reset your sound properties in Duke. Run the Setup program in your Duke directory and choose Sound. Make sure that the number of voices is set to 4 or less and that the sampling rate is 11khz.


I create or join a game, minimize the DOS box and everything crashes. Huh?

Don’t minimize the Duke box next time. If the game works, leave it alone. If Duke works normally, you may have a program running that conflicts with Duke. Close all your other apps before running TEN to see if that improves performance.


I tried to create or join a Duke game and I got some message about offending apps. What gives?

Stink-o-rama. Did those sweaty applications use their deodorant today?

First rule: Duke’s a memory-chomping pig. It sucks up RAM and spits it out like rusty nails. Better if you exit all open applications before running TEN and Duke. If not, you may get this dialog box:

CLOSE removes this dialog box and doesn’t allow you to join or create.

KILL makes your other applications beat a hasty retreat by closing them all immediately. Hope you weren’t still working on that spreadsheet!


The keyboard control really sucks! What should I do?

Your best bet is to try learning the mouse control method. (We recommend using the up and down arrow keys for forward and backward movement, while using the mouse and the mouse buttons to steer, fire and open doors.)

All the most successful Duke players find the mouse to be the control option of choice—it allows them to literally run circles around their opponents while keeping their guns trained on them. It may take some time to learn, but it is well worth it in the long run.


All those nude women in the game really offend me. Can I turn them off?

You sure can. Hit Esc in Duke and select Options. Choose Parental Lock to send the women packing.


Duke has totally crashed. How do I get outta here?

Alt–Tab is disabled when you’re in a DOS game, so you can’t just task-switch. You can, however, hit Ctrl–Alt–Delete to shut down the offending program—TENCOMM in this case. Or you can hit Alt–Enter to minimize the box, then click on the close icon in the upper right to close that window.


Can I task-switch while playing a Duke game in TEN?

Sort of. It’s safe enough to minimize TEN and tinker with other stuff while you’re in an Arena, but it gets really dicey once you’re in a game of Duke. We strongly advise that you don’t fool with any of that crazy Windows stuff once you’ve actually created or joined a Duke game.


Talk to us LIVE (Humans!)

Yes, there are humans on the other end of the phone if you need that personal touch. We are pretty good about responding to e-mail and faxes, so try those options first if you don’t have a really, really urgent problem. Otherwise, move those fingers and punch us up:

Customer Support

Perfect for your billing queries, account questions, or any other TEN ponderings.

•	1-800-8040-TEN

•	6 AM to 6 PM Pacific Time

•	7 days a week

Technical Support

Ask those difficult techie questions, we’ll give them our best shot!

•	1-800-8040-TEN

•	24 hours a day

•	7 days a week


Talk to our machine (TENFONE)

If you’ve got a pretty basic question and don’t feel the need to talk to us, try the TENFONE Automated Voice Response System:

TENFONE (General and Technical information)

•	1-800-8040-TEN

•	24 hours a day

•	7 days a week


Talk to our fax (TENFAX)

We’ve also got an automated fax information system that’ll send specific fax info (both general and technical) over to your machine:

TENFAX (Fax-On-Demand system)

•	1-800-8040-TEN

•	24 hours a day

•	7 days a week


Zap us a fax

If you feel the urge, you can fire on over a fax. That’s perfect if you have some funky problem you don’t think you can explain properly. Just screen capture it, print it out and send it by:

•	(415) 778-3514

•	24 hours a day

•	7 days a week


Surf our Web sites

Oh, baby. Do we got Web site support, or what!

General info and company stuff

If you want to find out more about TEN, it’s philosophies, employees and employment info, check out this site:

•	www.ten.net

The BetaZone

Our BetaZone has superb info on the games we support, recent FAQs, news and updates, upgrade information and the TEN software itself!

•	www.ten.net/betazone

The FileFactory

The FileFactory has truckloads of shareware games, upgrades and patches to popular software titles, user-created levels for Duke Nukem and other games, as well as the tippy-top downloads on the Web. Keep yer pants on!

•	www.filefactory.com


Chat with TENguides

What are TENguides? Actually, the question should be who are TENguides. TENguides are friendly members of the TEN community that out of the goodness of their heart will try to assist you while you’re connected to TEN. They’re online greeters, jacks-of-all-trades. Identifiable by the GUIDE in front of their name (e.g., GuideJoe, GuideBob, GuideGuido and so on).

If you’re online and having difficulties with part of the system or the game you’re playing, feel free to ask any TENguide in the vicinity for some help. They can generally be found skulking about in Chat Arenas or talking away in the mini-chat areas of games themselves.


I've got a general question

If you just have a basic question about the service or want some non-technical information about TEN, send off a mail to:

•	customerservice@ten.net


I've got a technical question

When you feel that urge to get techie and have the burning desire to know more about technical aspects of TEN, mail our gurus at:

•	technicalsupport@ten.net


What's the deal with my bill?

Think you’re overcharged? Undercharged? Confused about the billing scheme of life? You might want to check out the Customer Support area under BILLING INFO, but if that don’t work, send your questions to the professionals:

•	billing@ten.net

If your social life is going to hell ’cause of TEN and you have to quit, check out the information on terminating your membership.


I found a bug!

Well, you probably just ruined some TEN programmer’s day, but we gotta know. Defects in the system must be eradicated! Send that offending insect (and how you found it) along with your computer and software information to:

•	bugs@ten.net

We’ll get straight on it!


I've got this great idea

Think you can design better than the designers? Feel that TEN is lacking in some features, or have a better way to implement some aspect of the service. All suggestions are highly encouraged. Type ’em up and let us know at:

•	suggestions@ten.net

Our design team gives you its heartfelt thanks. No cash, just thanks.


You guys rule!

Omigod! If you think we’re the best thing since the advent of the “X-Files,” scented toilet paper or the solar-powered water weenie, give us a shout. Our egos can’t be stroked enough.

•	kudos@ten.net


You guys suck!

This dusty, old mailbox sees little use, but we do check it once in a blue moon. If we really offended you in some way, keep it to yourself. No, seriously. Here’s where to tell us:

•	complaints@ten.net


How do I find out about my billing info?

You can check your billing info online (including changing billing rate plans) by going to the Customer Support area off the Game Selector. Choose the BILLING INFO button, and you’ll be able to see all the pertinent data on your account.


Put a fork in me, I gotta cancel my TEN account

Think you’ve had enough, eh? Won’t you reconsider? Oh well.

If you absolutely, positively have to cancel your TEN membership, just give us a call at

•	1-800-8040-TEN

and we’ll put a stop to all that nonsense. Your account will remain in dormancy for six months, after which your screen name will be released to the pool for anyone to fish out and use.

You can also cancel your account by mail. Just write our Customer Support people at:

Total Entertainment Network

P.O. Box 194447

San Francisco, CA  94119

We won’t yell at you. Really.