The Command Shell: PC Information
How do I Telnet with a PC?
In order to follow this tutorial, it is necessary that you have the Windows telnet.exe program in your computer. There are variations in this program so you may or may not have access to all the dialog boxes shown here.
You can usually access the program from your 'Internet' applications that is usually located in the 'Accessories' section. If it is not there try one of these: 1) select 'Start', 'Run', and type 'telnet'; 2) select 'Start', 'Find', 'Files or Folders', and type 'telnet'; 3) install it from your Windows setup disks; 4) or obtain it by downloading it from Microsoft.
There are also many other products available from other vendors that do the same function. This tutorial concentrates on the operation of Microsoft's menus and operation to connect. Once you connect, the commands used on the remote system are the same for all versions.
Establishing a Connection
First start the program and then start a Telnet session by clicking on 'Connect' from the Menu bar and then select 'Remote System':
In the 'Remote System' box enter the following:
For 'Host Name' use the name of the machine you need to access. This would be something like: host.example.com to access a machine that has a file server by that name.
The other options should be set with 'Port: telnet', and the 'TermType: vt100'. Then click on connect.
| Microsoft Telnet> |
If this is what you have then there are two things you can do.
- You can launch the program with a direct connection to the intended machine with:
telnet some.host.name
- or once you run the program type:
open some.host.name
Either approach will connect you to the host machine. From there you would log in and use the commands available on that system.
Logging In
Once you connect to the remote computer you will enter your user name followed by your password:
When you have successfully logged in you will see a www% (or similar text) next to your cursor, this is your command prompt. The command prompt is where you provide commands to the remote computer. For information on what commands you might type please see our page on The Command Shell or visit the Useful UNIX Commands page.
The next time you need to login you will see that the server name you entered here is now in the connect menu. Simply select that option and you will go right to the login prompt.
