
                           Notes On Tops-20 Systems
                                     by
                  The Blue Archer and The Legion of Hackers!

Notes in brackets require the brackets.(2) This is just a basic overlay of the
tops-20(Dec-20) And it's commands since most of these systems are modified by
their owner and the commands might be different in some way or another. Now for
the article...Logging in, in a brief description: to login you type:login
username Where username is a wildcard for the account you are trying to break
into. There are a couple of ways to get usernames. One of the most common ways
is to type 'SY' at the prompt. This means systat, or system status. It will
give you a list of users on the system at the time and what they are doing
(what programs they are running, etc). Another way, and a way I find more
effective since it gives you a much broader scope of usernames is to type
a letter or serr If there are more then one username it will give you a beep,
then you just type in another letter. Example: login a(esc) It gives me a
beep because there are more then one user with the beginning letter a.

So I type an m, an something like this: login ammons (password) these letters
for the username ammons were  just filled in. It says password, then you type
a guess at the password, then return for a try at the pass or you can type in
another escape and it will say '(account)', here you usualy just type another
escape and let it fill in an account name, which the user may use for a pass-
word. Lets assume you got in, so we can continue with the file. Ok, you prob-
ably want to know if this guy has priveldges or not. To do this type 'I dir
<username>' and it will list out various information. The various privs are
normal(dull), operator, and wheel. If you find one with operator privs, it
is as good as having one with wheel since an operator can give the account
wheel access. Don't confuse operator priveledges with the username operator.
You can have oper pvivs and not be an operator , it has happened to me before.

To be able to use these privs type the command 'enable'. You will now have a
different prompt also. We will discusda is to see what kind of files this guy
(or other people, if you have good privs)has. To do this type 'dir' for
divectory. This will list the guy's files. There are various types of files.
We wil discuss 3 types and how to use them. The first is the file type 'exec'.
Which means executable from command level(the main prompt). To use this kind,
you just type the filename at the command level. These files, in a directory,
are in the form of: filename.exe.#

These files are usually programs and the like. The next kind of file we will
discuss is the text file. They are in the form of: fihename.txt(or text).# To
view the contents of these files(that is all they are for) you just type
'type filename'. You can also type the other files types via the 'type' 
command, but it usualy is just garbage unless you know about programing 
ddt and other various languages in the file. The last file type we will 
discuss is the command file. It is in the format of: filename.cmd.# To use this
file you type 'take filename'. This is valid logout.cmd files to set the
terminal types, and do various other things. Other filetypes are bin, which are
used by other programs. They just containg data for the program, so run the
program not this. Some files dont say what they are and the only way
you have of knowing what they are is trying all of the above. To look at other
people's directories type: dir <username> If you are not wheeled, then as to
whether or not you can access the persons files, depends on his protection.

Some leave it high, so anyone can see the files. Some set it very low so no one
except they and the wheels/operators can access them. If you are a wheel you
can access anyones files at all. To utilize someone elses files, just type:
command(take, type, or the filename, depending on the file type)
<username>filename.filetype.# Also, if there is only one filename under the
file, you don't need to type the number, and some of the commands can be
abreiviated (Ie:ty for type, etc). The system also has files, to access them
type 'dir sy<usrname>filename.filetype.# Then you don't have to type out all
the extra file info to use the program if you are going to use it often, or
just like it for whatever reason.  Ok, now done with files say you want to
create an account (if you are wheeled, that is, here is how you do it.) Type:
build <the username you want> password you will then have 2 prompts, type
(without the prompts): max ###(however many subdirectories you want to be able
to create, up to 999 or so) Not files wheel, if you want wheel access
(of course)(rmturn) Oh, dont forget to type enable before doing this. On these
systems only a wheel or an operator can create accounts. If you don't want to
create an account(or you do but want to do this too!), to get a list of all the
passwords, if the system password file isn't encrypted, type: ulist then the
word 'include' which means include password, and you might also want to type
'alphabetic' for an alphabetical list of usernames and passwords.

To change the password of the acask you the new pass twice and the old one
once. Ok, finished with that. 

Now: communicating with other users. The first and most obvious way is mail.
On most systems if you type 'mm' it will take you to the mailing section.
There you can send, read, delete, whatever, to the mail you have.
To send, just type 'send' then fill out the info. To read type 'r #' where #
is the number of the piece of mail you want to read. Mail is kept in the file
'mail.txt' and it keeps all the mail the user gets unless he deletes it, so
you can read old mail and stuff looking for more p/ws dialups, etc.. The next
way is to communicate to on-line users. You can send them a message by typing
'send username' then fillhng out a message. Or you can link to the user by
typekng 'talk username'. Then your screens are linked. You can do this with
more then one person. So you could have as many people linked as you want. 

Another way of communication is the devious way, spying. You can only do this
if you are a wheel. Just type spy at thent type the username of the person to
be spied on. Be warned wheels often do this to check on the system. So watch
what you are doing if someone is sitting in exec for an hour or something, or
someone is running the spy command. You can tell this by systat. Unless of
course there is no one else on the system (late at night) then you dont have
to worry. Oh, I forgot to mention, in a systat, if the part 'line' says 'det'
then don't worry about them, they are detached, meaning they are not logged in,
but the next time they log in, the can attach to that job and continue where
they left off. If you hang up you are also detached. Oh, I almost forgot, one
more way to communicate is the advise command. To use this, type: advise
username and you have control over his terminal.

[Mother Earth BBS]

