The encrypted port is at muck.spindizzy.org, port 7073.

The web based client (always encrypted) is available, as is an advanced variant.

Introduction

SpinDizzy will be moving to 100% SSL connections on 03/15/19. This means clients which do not support SSL will need to be upgraded, connected using an encryption gateway, or switched to a newer client. The web client always uses SSL.

The upgrade is being done because using unencrypted connections means anyone - telecom companies, coffee shops, airports, school, your neighbor, etc - can eavesdrop on what you do or say on SpinDizzy. Essentially, when you are not using an unencrypted connection, everything you type could in theory be seen by anyone. While some people claim not to be bothered by this, most would rather communications remain private. As SpinDizzy has always been on the forefront of privacy and security, this is the next logical step. We've had an SSL port long before most MUCKs supported it.

A lot of thought went into making this decision. It was not going to move forward unless viable workarounds were provided for essentially everyone on the MUCK. With that said, the sections below detail workarounds for your specific platform(s), if your current clients do not support encryption.

Windows

For Windows, the best option is BeipMU. This client is updated very frequently and the developers are extremely responsive. If you have windows 10, it is also available in the Windows Store for free. Just connect to port 7073 and indicate it is encrypted, and you're set.

Trebuchet Tk also supports SSL if you install the tcltls package. You may need to use the ActiveState TCL/TK Free Version interpreter and then use its Teapot package manager to install TLS. Other TCL/TK distributions may or may not have TLS support.

If you feel you are unable to switch to BeipMU or turn on Trebuchet encryption, you can use theWebsocket gateway program Morticon wrote. It basically works like this:

Even if you switch to BeipMU, you may still find the gateway program useful because it can handle bad/flaky connections.

If you really don't want to use the gateway program, you can try https://www.stunnel.org/ or https://nmap.org/ (for the ncat tool which comes with nmap). With either, the configuration works like this:

For ncat in particular, this command should work:

Linux

Linux has multiple good options:

To set up a systemd service that will start a ncat-based SSL redirector when you log in with your user account. Copy the following into the file ~/.config/systemd/user/spindizzy.service

# spindizzy.service
[Unit]
Description=Spindizzy SSL redirector

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/ncat -k -l 7072 -e '/usr/bin/ncat --ssl-verify muck.spindizzy.org 7073'
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=basic.target

Now, enable the service by running the following commands in your shell:

systemctl --user enable spindizzy.service
systemctl --user start spindizzy.service

At this point, change your client's settings to point to localhost instead of muck.spindizzy.org, and new connections made to localhost will be sent on to the muck using SSL/TLS.

MacOS

MacOS users can try Atlantis. A new version is in the works, and a beta version is available here. There is also a discussion on version 2.0 (PacketDancer is the program author).

If your current client does NOT currently support encryption (such as Savitar), you are strongly encouraged to email the developers and nicely ask for the support to get added.

UPDATE: Savitar has a thread going for version 2.0 improvements. If you use this client, please comment on it to reinforce that SSL is an important feature.

You may also be able to run BeipMU under WINE.

If you're comfortable with the commandline, you can download and manually compile the latest TinyFugue similar to the Linux instructions. You will have to enable SSL support.

MacOS users may be able to use Homebrew to install nmap (for ncat) or stunnel and then follow the Windows directions for those tools above.

Android

Android users currently have no known clients in the Play store which directly support SSL. Users are HIGHLY ENCOURAGED to email program authors to add the support (try emailing dan@happygoatstudios.com if you use Blowtorch and want SSL). In the meantime, users can either use the web client or a proxy/tunneling program that will tunnel the connection from the existing client.

Android users can also try installing TinTin++ under Termux. (Use the #ssl command instead of #session.)

Some proxy/tunneling apps to allow using your existing client include (use at your own risk):

If none of these options appeal and you are comfortable installing apps outside of the play store, an older MUCK client that supports encryption can be found at http://downloadapk.net/down_MuClient.html . Please note this app is essentially unsupported and may stop working at any time. IMPORTANT NOTE: Do NOT use the version found on the Amazon App Store. It is full of ads and was hijacked by someone.

iPhone / iPad

The MUDRammer client supports SSL.

Other Platforms

The sclient utility supports a variety of odd systems, and should be run in terminal, prompt, or script with a very simple syntax:

sclient spindizzy.org:7073 localhost:8888

After which you should be able to connect to localhost on port 8888.

If you use other platforms (Amiga, C64, Apple II, VT terminal, teletype, etc) to access SpinDizzy and encryption is not natively supported, your best bet is to run stunnel or ncat on a supported system such as Linux, and have your older platform connect to SpinDizzy via the local end of the SSL tunnel instead. Follow the instructions in the Windows section for hints.