Telnet

06Mar07

I tried typing the telnet address into my Firefox browser window, and it opened up a session for Terminal. I never knew what Terminal was for before, tending to shy away from it as it said it was a link to typing commands for unix – which I know runs my system – no way I want to break that! I was brave for this exercise, I bought a book recently that tells me how to boot from a disc so I could repair any damage!

As far as I understand, telnet is a direct link to an outside host. Normal web protocols do not apply, as you connect through a separate telnet server, and the information is not sent via packets – instead you remotely login to the host and move around within it. The information is not sent to you, it is viewed as it appears in the host. It seems to me also that you cannot alter information in the host this way, only view it. So you could log into your work computer from home to see where you were up to, but could not add directly to it. (I think.) My next step is to find out whether a telnet address needs to be set up separately, or if it is like an IP……ah more research. It is frustrating me to be ignorant of so much of this course, however it can only be good for me to learn it all.

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