Email Services


The World
Wide Web


Push Technologies


FTP Services


Usenet News


America Online


Telnet Services


Gopher Services


Bulletin Board
Systems


Other Online
Services

The Digital Research Initiative
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Telnet is a service whose role has changed over the past few years, but it is as important as ever.

Telnet allows a user to have "remote access" to a computer. "Remote access" means using a computer while you are not physically close to the computer being used. Generally, you must use a second computer to have remote access to the first computer.

When you use telnet services, you have a text window on a client computer which is used to have remote access to the server computer. This text window allows you to enter text commands and view the text-only results/output from these commands. Graphics are not supported at all.

Telnet always requires the remote user to provide a username and password to begin entering commands. Supplying a username and password is also called "logging in" to a computer, and because of this, many people refer to telnet as "Remote Login" or "RLogin."

Prior to the advent of graphical web browsers, such as Netscape Communicator/Navigator and Internet Explorer, telnet was the a primary mode of accessing the Internet. Telnet afforded users a way of gathering together on the same computer (via multiple telnet "sessions") for Real-time chats, posting boards, gopher services and even text-only web browsing. Before ISPs were common, users would log into a Bulletin Board Service that had Internet Access and use it to telnet to other computers.

Today, many UNC students check their email via telnet. Students telnet to isis.unc.edu, login with a username and password, and then launch Pine, a text-based email reader to read their email. This method of email-reading is slowly being replaced with programs such as Eudora and MS Outlook, which replace the need to use Pine via telnet.

The primary use of telnet for non-UNC folks is to administer servers remotely. People would maintain UNIX-based computers can telnet to these machines and change configurations, edit files, or even reset the entire computer if necessary. This is important, as most Web and Email Servers are required to be available 24 hours a day, and sometimes the administrator is not near the computer when it has a problem.

To use telnet, the client computer must have special telnet client software installed, such as NCSA Telnet or Microsoft's Telnet program. The computer being remotely accessed must have special telnet server software installed that listens and responds to requests for telnet service. The target computer must also be able to respond to text commands (i.e. Macintosh computers can not respond to text commands.).


This site made by
eric
This site was created especially for students of the UNC School of Journalism's
JOMC 050 Class, and anyone else who may be interested.
For more information, please contactdaikat@email.unc.edu