====== Your first caller ======

The first person to log in should be you. This page logs you in on the computer itself, creates your sysop account, and then connects over the network as a caller would.

===== Log in on the console =====

In PBDispatch choose **Tools > Local Login...**. A ProBoard window opens on the first free node. This is a local session, so it needs no network and no ports.

On a local logon you can press **Enter** at the name prompt instead of typing. ProBoard fills in the **Sysop name** you set in PBConfig. That only works when an account with that name exists, so create it first.

===== Create your sysop account =====

You have two ways to make the account. Use whichever you prefer.

**In PBConfig.** Open **User Editor** and click **Insert**. Fill in:

  * **Name:** exactly your sysop name.
  * **Password:** a strong one.
  * **Level:** the highest level you use for the sysop. Look at **Time / Download Limits** to see the levels and their limits, and choose the sysop's level.

Click **Save**.

**As a new caller.** Log in at the console, or connect from PBTerm (below), and answer the new-user questions with your sysop name and a password. Then open the **User Editor** in PBConfig, find your account, and raise its **Level** to the sysop's level. Save.

//Stop every node before you edit users in PBConfig, then start again. ProBoard rewrites a user's record at logoff and would undo your change.//

===== Look around =====

Now log in again and walk through the board as a caller does: the logon screens, the main menu, the message areas, the file areas. Press **/** at a menu prompt and type a command word such as ''who'' or ''page''. Anything that looks wrong can be changed in PBConfig.

{{ :v4:images:pbterm-main.png?900 |PBTerm connected to a board}}
//Figure 1. PBTerm connected to a ProBoard system.//

===== Connect over the network =====

Use a terminal program to see the board the way callers do. **PBTerm**, in your install folder, is made for this.

  - Start ''PBTerm.exe''. Its phonebook opens.
  - Add an entry. Set the host to ''localhost'', the protocol to Telnet and the port to 23.
  - Choose ANSI as the terminal type.
  - Double-click the entry to call it.

You should see the same logon screens a caller sees. Log in with the account you made. In PBDispatch the dashboard now shows one caller on a node, with the address and how long they have been connected.

A caller first sees the **Anti-Bot Detection** screen (press **ESC** to continue; see [[v4:connect:login_guard|Login Guard]]), then the name prompt.

{{ :v4:images:antibot-screen.png?900 |The Anti-Bot Detection screen as a caller sees it in PBTerm}}

{{ :v4:images:pbterm-logon.png?900 |The logon screen as a caller sees it in PBTerm}}

You can also use any other Telnet client, or SSH or RLogin once you have turned those services on.

===== Try a second caller =====

Open a second PBTerm window and call again. The dashboard shows two nodes in use. Each caller has a separate ''ProBoard.exe'' and a separate folder in ''NODEDIR''.

Go on to [[v4:start:go_online|Going online]] when you are ready for people outside your own computer.