How to Telnet with Windows XP

The queen of hacker commands is telnet. To get Windows help for
telnet, in the cmd.exe window give the command:

C:\>telnet /?

Here's what you will get:

telnet [-a][-e escape char][-f log file][-l user][-t term][host
[port]]
-a Attempt automatic logon. Same as -l option except uses
the currently logged on user's name.
-e Escape character to enter telnet client prompt.
-f File name for client side logging
-l Specifies the user name to log in with on the remote system.
Requires that the remote system support the TELNET ENVIRON
option.
-t Specifies terminal type.
Supported term types are vt100, vt52, ansi and vtnt only.
host Specifies the hostname or IP address of the remote computer
to connect to.

port Specifies a port number or service name.

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Newbie note: what is a port on a computer? A computer port is sort of like a seaport. It's where things can go in and/or out of a computer. Some ports are easy to understand, like keyboard, monitor, printer and modem. Other ports are virtual, meaning that they are created by software. When that modem port of yours (or LAN or ISDN or DSL) is connected to the Internet, your computer has the ability to open or close any of over 65,000 different virtual ports, and has the ability to connect to any of these on another computer - if it is running that port, and if a firewall doesn?t block it.
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Newbie note: How do you address a computer over the Internet? There are two ways: by number or by name.
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The simplest use of telnet is to log into a remote computer. Give the
command:

C:/>telnet targetcomputer.com (substituting the name of the computer you want to telnet into for targetcomputer.com)

If this computer is set up to let people log into accounts, you may
get the message:

login:

Type your user name here, making sure to be exact. You can't swap between lower case and capital letters. For example, user name Guest is not the same as guest.

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Newbie note: Lots of people email me asking how to learn what their user name and password are. Stop laughing, darn it, they really do. If you don't know your user name and password, that means whoever runs that computer didn't give you an account and doesn't want you to log on.
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Then comes the message:

Password:

Again, be exact in typing in your password.

What if this doesn't work?

Every day people write to me complaining they can't telnet. That is
usually because they try to telnet into a computer, or a port on a
computer that is set up to refuse telnet connections. Here's what it
might look like when a computer refuses a telnet connection:

C:\ >telnet 10.0.0.3
Connecting To 10.0.0.3...Could not open connection to the host, on port 23. A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond.

Or you might see:

C:\ >telnet techbroker.com
Connecting To techbroker.com...Could not open connection to the host, on port 23.
No connection could be made because the target machine actively
refused it.

If you just give the telnet command without giving a port number, it
will automatically try to connect on port 23, which sometimes runs a
telnet server.

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Newbie note: your Windows computer has a telnet client program,
meaning it will let you telnet out of it. However you have to install
a telnet server before anyone can telnet into port 23 on your
computer.
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If telnet failed to connect, possibly the computer you were trying to
telnet into was down or just plain no longer in existence. Maybe the
people who run that computer don't want you to telnet into it.