opening a chat port

[jmm19@humboldt.edu]

Greetings,

I do not want to try this until I get some advice :)
I don't have telnetd and of course, this is so for obvious reasons. 
However, I am thinking if installing something like a chat server which
defaults to port 7000 would be a big security breach (and telnetd is not
needed for this, only telnet or telnet-ssl).

The chat server (Amnuts221-patched) will be reached by telneting to port
7000.  If I allow the firewall to open this port (so far the only open
ports on this machine are 25, 443 and 80) will this be considered a
security risk?  Other than having the chat server closed and leaving that
port open without the service...Is there a more secure alternative?

Joe M.