Hi,

I have installed RH 7.2 and put it on my local network behind a cable modem/router.

I cannot telnet to the Linux box from another machine on the local net.

I edited the telnet file in /etc/xinetd.d. I allowed only machines from my local domain with the following line:

only_from = 192.168.1.0/200

It seems that the in.telnetd is not able to start.

When I try to run it from a shell I get the following error.

in.telnetd: getpeername: Socket operation on a non-socket

in.telnetd is designed to be run thru inetd. One of the first things it does is to do a getpeername() on the open socket fd that was passed by inetd. When you execute it from the command line, you don't pass an open socket; getpeername() is looking at a null fd.

Use the -D option (debug). Do a man telnetd to find the option that follows the -D. There are several.

What kind of error do you get on the client end when you run telnet?

When I telnet from another machine to this box, it connects and then just sits there. If I send a 'return' the session closes.

You said that in.telnetd is used with inetd. What telnet daemon is used with xinetd?

(insert stock line about telnet not being secure and how one should use ssh here )

It would seem that your "only_from" line is incorrect. There really is no CIDR notation definition for "/200". If you want to allow access from any address in the 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0 network, you would enter "only_from = 192.168.1.0/24".

Not sure if this is your only problem, but it might help. You might want to check your system logs on the Linux box (/var/log/messages, perhaps) to see if any error messages are being generated by the server when you attempt to telnet in.

In reference to the other reply, xinetd is just a replacement for inetd. The same daemon (in.telnetd) can be run from either one. The poster's point was that you can't run "in.telnetd" from a command prompt (for reasons probably beyond the scope of this discussion).

I will use ssh, but I am afraid that I will have the same problems getting that set up too.

It seems that none of the ports on my server are open.

SSH does not need to be run from *inetd - actually it is much happier if you run it stand-alone (just start sshd and let it run in the background).

Back to telnet - did you try changing the allow_from line or checking the messages in your system logs? Don't forget that you need to restart *inetd after making config changes, and this can usually be accomplished by sending the process the "Hangup" signal (kill -HUP, like my userid ). Any other info/symptoms you can provide can help the community at large here assist you.

I am at work and the machine is at home.

Will try your remedies tonight.

Thanks

Used ssh

Simply great to know that u r now using 'sshd'.
It is just fantastic yet more secured than 'telnet'.

If u are using a windows client to connect to ur Linux box, get installed WinAxe_6.2 on the client and work happily.

Kausik