Administering an ISP Installation

Telnet

Remote administration through a Telnet client and server lets you remotely log on to and execute commands on operating systems based on Windows 2000 or UNIX. Microsoft® Telnet Service logs remote clients onto a server as though they were connected to the server directly through a local terminal. Telnet Service works like a basic TCP/IP Telnet Server. A computer running the Telnet Server tool under Windows 2000 Server can support connections from various TCP/IP Telnet clients, including UNIX-based and Windows-based computers.

The remote administration feature of Telnet lets users log on to UNIX-based and Windows-based computers in another location and execute commands on them. Telnet Service is now part of the Windows 2000 Services for UNIX. You can download Telnet from the Microsoft Web site, at http://www.microsoft.com/.

When you download and install Telnet, a Telnet client is installed in the Accessories folder. The Telnet client connects to another computer that is running a TCP/IP-based Telnet server.

The Telnet Server tool can execute commands (such as TCP/IP tool or Microsoft® MSDOS® commands) in the command-prompt window. Here’s how the command process works:

Once logged on to a Telnet server, you can enter a command at a remote Telnet client computer.
The Telnet server sends the results of the command back to the remote Telnet client computer.

Each Telnet-client session started on a Telnet server is allocated a console session, which doesn’t interfere with any local-user sessions on the server. At the start of a session, the remote Telnet client must send a user name and password to log on to the Telnet server. This user name and password create a connection with the security attributes of the user.

For example, you can:

Log on to a computer running Windows 2000 Professional and the Telnet client.
Start the Telnet client.
Connect to a computer running Windows 2000 Server and the Telnet Server tool.
Run command-line scripts to add users, services, and so on.

For more information about Telnet service, see “Telnet Server Admin Utility” in the Windows 2000 online documentation.