Member Handbook

REV. B · COVERS EVERY SERVICE IN THE GARDEN · KEEP NEAR YOUR MACHINE

Contents

Before you connect: authorize your line
Point your machine at the garden
Service directory
The walled web
Your homepage
Passwords & lines
When it goes quiet
House rules

1. Before you connect: authorize your line

Every account is IP-locked. The retro ports answer only to addresses on your account's allow-list — to everyone else the garden does not exist.

From the network your vintage machine uses, open the member portal on any modern browser and press Authorize this network. You can also type an IPv4 address in by hand; the portal shows your account’s allow-list.
The firewall picks up changes within about a minute.
Dynamic IP changed overnight? Services will go quiet. Remove the stale address in the portal and authorize again.
One membership includes one line (one IP). More machines on different networks need the Extra Line add-on.

2. Point your machine at the garden

Set your vintage machine's DNS server to 172.232.183.32. That single setting is the whole trick: inside the garden every hostname — mail.yiffcloud.com, login.oscar.aol.com, anything — resolves to us, so stock clients connect without modification.

Windows 95/98: Start → Settings → Control Panel → Network → TCP/IP → Properties → DNS Configuration → Enable DNS, add 172.232.183.32.
Classic Mac OS: Apple menu → Control Panels → TCP/IP → Name server addr: 172.232.183.32.
Anything UNIX-ish: nameserver 172.232.183.32 in /etc/resolv.conf.

AUTHORIZE FIRST (SECTION 1) - THE DNS PORT IS BEHIND THE SAME GATE, SO AN UNAUTHORIZED MACHINE CANNOT EVEN LOOK UP A NAME.

3. Service directory

Service	Port	Works with	Notes
AIM (OSCAR)	5190	AIM 1.x–3.x	Stock login servers resolve to us; just sign on.
MSN Messenger	1863	MSN Messenger 1–2	Shared presence with AIM and Yahoo!.
Yahoo! Messenger	5050	Yahoo! Messenger classic	Same buddy universe.
IRC	6667	mIRC, ircII, anything	Nick = your screenname. Start in `#lobby`.
Mail — POP3	110	Eudora, Outlook Express, Netscape Mail	Your mailbox: screenname@yiffcloud.com.
Mail — SMTP	25	same clients	Delivery inside the garden only.
Mail — IMAP	143	—	Listed but temperamental; use POP3 for now.
FTP	21	WS_FTP, Fetch, command line	Root lists your homepage + your domains. Passive mode supported.
Walled web	8088	any browser with proxy support	See section 4.
Finger	79	`finger name@yiffcloud.com`	See who’s around.
Printing	515 / 631 / 9100	LPD, IPP, raw	Print from the vintage machine; collect PDFs later.

4. The walled web

Browsing runs through the garden’s own web service on port 8088. Set your browser’s HTTP proxy to yiffcloud.com port 8088, then open any http:// address — curated pages, weather, news, and member sites, all served from inside.

Netscape 2–4: Options → Network Preferences → Proxies → Manual Proxy Configuration → HTTP Proxy: yiffcloud.com, Port: 8088.
Internet Explorer 3–5: View → Options → Connection → Proxy Server → HTTP: yiffcloud.com:8088.

Without the proxy setting, plain port-80 requests reach the modern front office and bounce — the proxy line is the one bit of browser homework.

5. Your homepage

Publish from the portal: the Public homepage switch seeds yiffcloud.com/~you/ and opens the door. Turning it off keeps your files, closes the door.
Upload via the portal's File Manager or straight from the vintage machine over FTP — your site folders appear at the FTP root.
Static content only (HTML, images, CSS, JS, text, audio), 5 MB per file, quota per site. Replacing a file frees its old bytes first.
Bought a domain slot? Name it in the portal and yourname.com serves inside the garden with its own storage.

6. Passwords & lines

Your website password signs you into this modern site only. You chose it; we store only a hash.
Your service password signs you into everything retro. It is machine-generated (the old wire is plaintext — never reuse a password you care about), shown in the portal, and one click regenerates it.
Lines are IP addresses: the portal shows N of M used, lists each authorized address, and lets you remove one to free the slot. Extra Lines raise M.

7. When it goes quiet

Everything below assumes the machine could connect yesterday. Work the table top to bottom — the first row is the answer nine times in ten.

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
Every service times out — even DNS lookups fail	Your IP moved overnight (dynamic lines drift)	Portal → remove the stale address → authorize again. The firewall follows within a minute.
Names resolve, but sign-ons are rejected	Website password typed into a retro client	Retro clients take the service password (section 6). Caps lock counts.
Browser bounces to a modern-looking page	HTTP proxy not set	Proxy `yiffcloud.com:8088` (section 4) — the one bit of browser homework.
IMAP refuses a login POP3 accepts	IMAP is listed but temperamental	Use POP3 for now; it is the supported path.
FTP connects, then listings hang forever	Active-mode data connection blocked on your end	Switch your FTP client to passive (PASV) mode.
All of the above check out	Genuinely us	Say so in `#lobby`, IM `fox`, or mail `fox@yiffcloud.com` from a working line.

8. House rules

The short version: this is a small room, act like it. The long version is the Terms of Service. Misuse ends membership without a refund; the wall is load-bearing and we do not apologize for it.