Wired! Philippines

A Newbie's Guide to Telnet

 

What is TELNET?

Telnet is a program that enables you to communicate with other computers. It is typically used for remote access to a host computer on which you have an account or to publicly accessible catalogues and databases. Telnet is like FTP: you establish a session on a remote site.

As with FTP, before you can start a Telnet session, you need to have the address of the site you want to access. After you have attached to the remote host, you need to enter the commands that are appropriate to the operating system on the remote computer.

This article serves only as a backgrounder and a primer to you on how to do basic Telnet sessions. You should contact your ISP and ask them more about how you can Telnet.

The procedure for establishing a Telnet session begins with getting to the Telnet> prompt. Some systems make the prompt available through a menu while others require that you type Telnet at the system prompt. Again, you should check with your ISP people on how you can reach Telnet.

 

Remote Logging

Many remote hosts require you to have a login name and a password to connect. On the other hand, there are others that allow users to login using a generic login name such as guest or info with no required password.

 

Commands

Below are some of the fundamental telnet commands you can type at the Telnet> prompt:

close

Closes the current connection.

display

Displays the operating parameters.

open

Connects you to a site.

quit

Exits or ends your Telnet session.

send

Allows you to transmit special characters

set

Sets operating parameters

status

Prints the status information on the screen.

toggle

Toggles the operating parameters.

z

Suspends Telnet

?

Prints Help information.

 

Telnet Tutorial

There is a special Telnet tutorial login available to give new users to the InterNIC Directory and Database online services. Start your Telnet session by accessing ds.internic.net and login as guest (no password required). The tutorial will guide you through the different Telnet services.

Here is a sample of what you can expect to see on your screen in your Telnet tutorial:

Telnet> open ds.internic.net

Trying...

Connected to ds.internic.net.

Escape character is '^]'.

InterNIC Directory and Database Services

Welcome to InterNIC Directory and Database Services provided by AT&T. These services are partially supported through a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation.

First time users may login as guest with no password to receive help.

Your comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome, and can be mailed to admin@ds.internic.net.

AT&T MAKES NO WARRANTY OR GUARANTEE, OR PROMISE, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, CONCERNING THE CONTENT OR ACCURACY OF THE DIRECTORY ENTRIES AND DATABASE FILES STORED AND MAINTAINED BY AT&T. AT&T EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS AND EXCLUDES ALL EXPRESS WARRANTIES AND IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

SunOS UNIX (ds)

login: guest

Last login: Thu Jan 21 04:54:32 from tuba.aix.yale

SunOS Release 4.1.3 (DS) #2: Thu Mar 18 14:51:13 EST 1996

*************************************************************************************

Welcome to the InterNIC Directory and Database Server

*************************************************************************************

Welcome to the AT&T InterNIC Directory and Database Services Telnet Interface

Questions or problems may be reported to the services administrator via electronic mail to admin@ds.internic.net or via telephone on (800) 862-0677 or (908) 668 6587.

The <Delete> key is used for backspacing and deleting characters in this interface.

InterNIC Directory and Database Services (DS) Telnet Interface

Main Menu

    1. User Tutorial
    2. InterNIC Directory of Directories
    3. InterNIC Directory Services ("White Pages")
    4. Search the InterNIC DS Server File Space
    5. Browse the InterNIC DS Server File Space (GOPHER)
    6. Internet Public File Search (ARCHIE)
    7. Internet Documentation (RFC's, FYI's, etc.) Search
    8. Exit

Enter desired option (1-8) and press <RETURN> key: 1

InterNIC Directory and Database Services Telnet Interface Tutorial

The InterNIC Directory and Database Services currently provide three high level services:

    1. help users look for resources attached to the Internet
    2. help users look for people and institutions on the Internet
    3. help users find and retrieve public files on the Internet

These three high level services are supported by a wide range of user services in addition to this unified Telnet interface. These services include:

    1. anonymous ftp for browsing the public directory structure and retrieving files
    2. archie for searching for specific file names available via the archie logon
    3. quipu for X.500 based person and institution lookups available via the x500 login
    4. netfind for person lookups is available via the netfind login
    5. wais for keyword based searches of resources and documents is available via the wais login
    6. gopher for browsing the services and resources of the InterNIC team is available via the gopher login

Press <RETURN> to continue or press <q> and press <RETURN> to exit help: 1

 

From this point, you can choose any of the tutorials. All you have to do is follow the instructions and then choose Exit to end the sessions.

 

Some Interesting Telnet Sites You Might Like to Try Out

  • The University of Michigan Weather Underground downwind.sprl.umich.edu
  • The University of Michigan Geographic Name Server martini.eecs.umich.edu
  • The NASA Spacelink 192.149.89.61

 
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