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• What is telnet?
• How to telnet
• How to turn off a telnet server on your home Linux computer <begin11d.shtml>
What Is Telnet?
Telnet is a protocol that is most commonly used to log into a remote computer. It also is
the single most powerful hacking tool on the planet. With just a telnet client program,
you can:
• send email
• send unexpected input to webservers that can give you amazing and sometimes
illegal results
• probe the services offered by servers, routers and even people's home computers.
How to Telnet
Don't know how to telnet? Click the easy telnet links at happyhacker.com and land in the
middle of a real hacker wargame! This should work regardless of your computer
operating system -- if you have an up to date browser, if your online service provider
gives you a true Internet connection, and if your computer is able to telnet at all.
Did those links get you into a telnet session? Were you able to login to a remote
computer? If yes, congratulations.
If not, how can you fix the problem? If no telnet program appeared on your monitor when
you clicked these links, perhaps your browser is too ancient to allow telnet. Try installing
the latest Netscape browser (<http://www.netscape.com/>). Or, perhaps your operating
system does not include a telnet program. In that case, install or reinstall Windows 95 or
98. If you own a Mac, get the superb Mac OS X or Linux PPC
(<http://www.linuxppc.com/>).
If a telnet program came up and failed to connect, possibly the computer you were trying
to telnet into was down or just plain no longer in existence. Or, you may be using
America Online (or a similar extremely poor online service). If so, your simplest solution
may be to get a better online service provider. Determined to hack using AOL? See
http://happyhacker.org/aol.shtml <../aol.shtml> for some ways to make AOL give you a
true Internet connection.
OK, so you've managed to telnet for the first time. Presumably you don't want to limit
yourself to telnet links on web sites. How do you telnet anywhere you want to go?
If you have Linux or any other type of Unix (BSD, SCO, Solaris, Sun OS, Irix, Ultrix,
etc.) telneting is easy. Just bring up "console" or "shell" (or whatever your GUI calls the
command line interface). At the prompt type:
telnet <hostname or IP address>
Click "connect" then "remote system…". In the host name box place the host name or IP
address of the computer to which you wish to telnet. Leave the Port and Term Type
boxes alone for now.
Here is a really important point. Every day people email me complaining that some
computer won't let them telnet into it. They ask what they are doing wrong. They aren't
doing anything wrong:
• Maybe the computer they are trying to reach no longer exists.
• Maybe the computer they are trying to reach doesn't allow telnet logins. For
example, whois.internic.net no longer allows telnet logins on port 23 (the default
port). Click here to learn how to telnet into whois.internic.net on the right port for
that particular server. <../whois.shtml>
• Or maybe they make a telnet connection and the remote computer asks for a user
name and password they don't have. Then they email me asking for how to get a
login name and password that will work.
Newbie note: The owners or administrators of any Internet host computer decide who
gets user names and passwords. Believe it or not, about once a week someone emails me
asking what user name and password their own online service provider has assigned them
for a telnet login. That's why I'm telling people the obvious -- if you want to telnet into
any computer, and you don't have a user name and password, you must ask the owner,
administrator of tech support for that system for a user name and password. If they won't
give that to you, they don't want you to have it!
You can go to jail warning: If you guess the user name and password, or use a
computer breakin technique to get or create them, or if someone other than an owner
or administrator or a legitimate user on that system gives you a user name and
password, it is against the law to use them. Many computer criminals give out user
names and passwords that they obtained illegally.
• Ask Internet Service Providers for shell accounts. Some offer them, although
most don't.
• Set up a telnet server on your own computer (see instructions below). Yes, once
you are running a telnet server, you can telnet from your computer back into your
computer. Simply give the command "telnet 127.0.0.1".
• Make friends with people who run Internet computers with telnet servers.