Telnet Information

This page needs to be updated to talk about ssh clients as well as telnet clients. There should probably be sections on how to telnet and ssh from Windows, Macintosh OS 9, Macintosh OS X, and Unix. For OS X, just start a Terminal window and and use the unix commands.

What is Telnet?

Telnet programs are a type of terminal emulation program, just like modem-based communications programs. The difference is that they allow you to access other computers through the Internet, rather than by dialing the other computers directly.

Telnet programs "talk" to other Internet-connected computers using what's called the "telnet protocol" for communication. This protocol specifies how telnet programs should send data back and forth, allowing for interactive text sessions. The folllowing is an example of an interactive session, with the remote computer displaying text, then waiting for the user to type some text:

  Connecting to xyzzy.com....
  Please enter your login: jsmith
  Password? *****
  Welcome, jsmith.  You have 3 new messages.
  Read them now (y/n)? y
If you've accessed BBSs by modem before, using a communications program, then you'll find telnet is similar. But it allows you to access Internet-connected BBSs and other systems world-wide.

In addition to being a type of program and a protocol, telnet can also be used as a verb. To telnet to a system means to connect to a system with a telnet program.

Do You Have a Telnet Program?

If selecting telnet to cyberspace.org from your web browser doesn't work, it's probably either because your system doesn't have a telnet program, or because your browser hasn't been configured to find one.

If you have a telnet program, but it's not configured to run automatically from a browser, you can launch it manually, and open a connection to the Grex's address, cyberspace.org. You could also configure your browser to run the telnet program automatically. In Netscape Navigator 2.0 and higher, a telnet application can be specified in the Options menu, under General Preferences, by clicking on the Apps button. Other browsers are configured in a similar way.

If you don't know if you already have a telnet program, try looking for a program named "telnet," or with "telnet" in its name. If your computer has a "find file" command, try searching for a file named telnet. Windows 95, 98, and NT all include a simple telnet program. If you installed the normal configuration of any of these systems, then the telnet program should already be on your hard drive, commonly stored in C:\WINDOWS\TELNET.EXE (win95) or C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\TELNET.EXE (winNT).

Getting a free Telnet Program

If you need to download or install a telnet program, the following programs are the ones that we recommend.
Better Telnet (for Macintosh)
[logo in PNG format] This free Macintosh telnet client program is a significantly enhanced version of the popular standard NCSA Telnet. It is highly recommended. See the official Better Telnet Home Page from Sassy Software. Source code is available for this program. It comes in PPC and FAT distributions. There are French, German, and Japanese versions.

PuTTY (for all windows platforms)
PuTTY is a free implementation of Telnet and SSH for Win32 and Unix platforms, along with an xterm terminal emulator. It supports scp and sftp. If you are using a version of PuTTY earlier than 0.55, you should upgrade to 0.55. The latest version of PuTTY can be found at the author's website: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/.

Tera Term (for all windows platforms)
This an excellent telnet client program for any windows platform including 3.1, CE, 95, 98, and NT. Source code is available. There is an NT alpha port. Third-party plug-ins are available, including free support for ssh. See the Tera Term Home Page for details and to select the version to download. Tera Term 1.4 for windows 3.1 is 699k. Tera Term Pro 2.3 for win32 platforms is 943k.

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Last updated 06 September, 2004. We welcome your comments!