Okay, I've set up a LAN with a router connecting an ADSL conenction to a switch which distributes it to two PCs.
The IP of the linux box is 192.168.1.3 and IP of windows 98 one is 192.168.1.2.

I've gotten a SAMBA file server working on the windows one, so I wanted to find out if there was anyway to execute commands in the windows PC from linux in the LAN.

In my findings I came across telnet and ssh.
It seems telnet is okay for my purposes as security is not needed.

So, I can telnet the router by typing telnet 192.168.1.1 and then administer it through the command line.
The problem is when I try to telnet the windows PC by executing telnet 192.168.1.2 I get the following output:
Trying 192.168.1.2...
telnet: connect to address 192.168.1.2: Connection refused
telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: Connection refused

I can ping the address.

How can I get this working?

I don't have the direct answer to your question, but a couple things to try.

First, do you have a firewall running? If you do, set it to allow incoming connections from your linux box.

Second, does windows 98 have a telnet server running by default? You may need to enable it or install telnet server software. You should be able to check it by typing the following at a command prompt:

telnet localhost
or
telnet 192.168.1.2

This will at least tell you if you have a working server running.

Hope this helps a bit.

Windows 98 don't have telnet server so it will not work until and unless you get 3rd party telnet server.

AH ok then.. well that just shows my network newbishnes .
So, what can I accomplish using telnet? Just command line commands?

Yup telnet is for remote adminstration of NT/2003/2000 or UNIX/Linux/BSD servers. Howerver tetlnet is insecure use ssh on UNIX and Windows server (yup we have ssh server for windows too). Windows 98 is desktop OS and not Server OS.

Hope this helps. feel free to reply back if you have more questions

If you are cool with just command line on the ein98 machine telnet is cool, if you are running a GUI on the linux machine you might also try and see if you can get vnc for the 98 box I think they have a version that runs on it. If you can find vnc server for 98 and you are running a GUI on the linux box you can run a vnc client which will allow you to use your windows desktop on the linux machine, just as though you were sitting at your windows machine. Try http://www.realvnc.com/ and http://www.tightvnc.com/ or is it tightvnc.org? Try looking at both of those.

Alex

Cool thanks for that link I'll check it out.

No one explicitly mentioned PuTTY. A free ssh et al. client for Winders. The URL is long, the best way to find it is to Google on "putty", it always comes up 1st:
http://www.google.com/search?q=putty

If you want to get deeply into it, it can transmit X sessions, although VNC might be better at that.

Well Putty is great as a client but he still needs some sort of server running on the Win98 machine. And VNC takes up less bandwidth than a forwarded x session, however the best way to use VNC if security is needed to to forward the VNC session through SSH but he stated he did not need security so....

Alex

Okay people I got the vnc thing working great. That's great for when I need to control the system directly.
Now, for some quick commands I also have telnet.
I got a free win98 telnet server off the internet and that works.
The problem is that it minimizes things and stuff when I'm trying to input commands.
So, if someone is trying to use the computer when I need to access the msdos there it causes havoc.
Is this normal with telnet?

I'm confused windows minimize, the text minimizes? What exactly happens? One thing you may find that is occuring is that with vnc on windows computers is that the vnc desktop is the same one sitting at the unit is using. Additionally you must remember 98 is not a true multiuser OS and therefore is not really suited for use as a server whether telnet or other. This may give you an answer if not try to let us kknow more in detail what is happening so that we may tty to provide a solution.

Alex

When running telnet whenever you type it tries to bring up the telnet window(it shows up in the taskbar).

So windows are minimised when that happens.

Unfortunately I don't think there is a solution, as I mentioned previously WIN98 is not a server OS and therefore has some limitation think this is one of them.

Alex