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Re: Unable to telnet to localhost



John Purser wrote:

> I'm running Debian woody with a 2.4.10 custom kernel.
> 
> In response to "telnet 127.0.0.1"  I get this error:
> telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: Connection refused
> 
> I can ping 127.0.0.1 but not telnet to it.  I'm guessing telnet connectivity
> is turned off by default.  Where do I go to turn it on?  I haven't used
> telnet on my network before but it's suggested as a test in a HOW-TO I'm
> working through.

Right, you probably don't have telnetd installed or enabled.

I'm not sure what the HOWTO is trying to accomplish (you didn't mention
which HOWTO you're reading), but I really don't recommend installing
telnetd. You can generally substitute ssh for just about anything you
might want to do with telnet, and ssh provides you with a secure
channel.

If you're behind a firewall that blocks port 23 (so that you'd only be
able to get incoming telnet connections from within your local network),
then I suppose it wouldn't be so bad, but really, ssh is no harder to
use, and strongly preferable for security reasons.

To get either telnetd or sshd on a Debian system, try

    apt-get install telnetd

or

    apt-get install ssh

The ssh equivalent of "telnet 127.0.0.1" is just "ssh 127.0.0.1".

Craig



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