Greetings.
I am trying to get telnet to work.
My situation is: Red Hat 6.2 and easy access through SSH(using PuTTY). No problems.

But I am trying to utilize old code from a previous program that accessed a Unix Box via telnet. I have root privs on the Linux box, and when I try to log in it gives me login authentication Failures. (this from the Message log and the fact that I get a login incorrect response at the command prompt.)

questions:
1) If the Linux System is set up to utilize SSH, can you still utilize an unencrypted interface such as telnet?
2) Is the fact that the login prompt even shows when I try to telnet in, evidence of the fact that the telnet server is up and running?
3)Is there a telnet "user.allow" file or something similar I need to add or do I need to add my host name to the /etc/hosts file on the Linux System.

As you can tell I am a novice (this is being kind) at linux, but everyone has to start somewhere no?


Judging by what I've read in these forums, this should be an easy one for this crew.
Any info would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Rick

1) Yes, you can have SSH and Telnet exist side-by-side without any trouble. However, since SSH does everything Telnet does AND is secure, why mess around with Telnet?

2)I haven't used Telnet for a LONG time, but you probably want to log onto the machine locally and run ps -A and see if it is running. However, many people run telnet through the "super daemons" inetd or xinetd, so you probably want to check their config files as well.

3) You should be able to log in as any normal user that has an account on that machine. However, if you are trying to log in as root, telnet denies that by default. You can probably change that in the telnet server config file, but quite frankly, I can't think of a bigger security risk than allowing root access through telnet. You might as well post your IP address and root password on a message board.

If you need root privileges, log in as a normal user and use su to become root once in. And for God's sake, use SSH.

Thanks for the updates, Can you tell me where the telnet server config file is and what it is called so that I would enable the root user?

Once again though I should try to clarify.

The reason I am trying to use telnet is I am using an existing program. If I were writing it over, I would use SSH.
This whole setup is part of a test station configuration setup that will never see any network ever, outside of the Test station. and I'm the only user. Therefore, we don't need the security or the encryption.

I'd just telnet in as a regular user and then use su to become root.