Joy of Access: Telnet

Read at your own risk

This document dates from the early web period, and is kept for archival purposes only. It is no longer updated, and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate.
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Telnet allows you to log into other computers. A lot of libraries, for example, still require you to “telnet” in to find the information you want. The Library of Congress is a good example. You can get to most MOOs and MUDs by telnet as well, if you haven’t got a specialized MUD client at hand.

When you telnet to a standard telnet site, such as locis.loc.gov (the Library of Congress), you have to use a telnet program (such as Better Telnet on the Macintosh, or just ‘telnet’ on Windows) and “Open” a “Session”, “Connection”, or “Remote Host”. The remote host you type is the name of the site you want to go to: locis.loc.gov, for example.

If you also need to type a port, and you don’t see a box to type the port number into, try just adding a space to the end of the hostname and type the port there: lambda.moo.mud.org 8888, for example.

  1. Bookmarks On The Web
  2. Joy of Access
  3. Freedom of Press