Hey there techies
I've been reading the posts here and I must say that I really like this forum, from an aesthetic point of view and also from the technical point of view. I find the members here very co-operative and concerned, which is very nice. And as per my analysis, we have a good lot of experienced people here. That makes this forum standout in a class of its own. I've been to other forums, but this one is very 'open' and mature, I may say. I hope to get good support from the techies here ..
Got a question upfront .... its regarding telnet. I've tried get some tutorial on telnet but they aren't what I want. The thing is that my network security scanner shows that there are open ports on the target machine. When I double click on an port, it opens up a telnet connection on that port. It brings up the command prompt window and says 'Connecting to Telnet 21*.1**.**1.**1' but when I press any key, the windows closes. What's going on?
waitin for replies ...

hi :-)
telnet service opens port 23, and you can connect it with DOS prompt, type:
telnet [destination]
if you want to know how to use telnet command, type telnet /? and you'll see some instructions.

Most likely, double clicking on the port or computer or watever just opens up a telnet session so u can see the banner which, when poorly configured states the name and version of the service running on that port. When it cant connect, it will close the window because the telnet session is over. Whereas if u open a DOS prompt and then manually telnet, when the session ends, it returns to the command prompt.

Woody is right on this one. If you actually want to open a port on a machine beside the usual telnet service you should configure your line as follows.

telnet xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx 80

In this case you would be connecting on port 80.

^Right ... the above works for a server, as in your example but I'm connecting to a workstation running XP. Anywayz ... I tried what woody and the others suggested but failed to establish a session.
The command: telnet -l username ipaddress 23
I get 'Could not open connection to the host, on port 23. A socket operation was attempted to an unreachable network" Am I going wrong somewhere.
I tried to schedule the telnet service using the 'at' command but I get an error message saying 'Access Denied' Now, What I want to know is how do I start a service remotely? If I have to provide a user name to enable a service, how do I do that? (I have a username and password)
Man I feel like a complete amateur , I should have posted this in the newbie section. *Smack, man I get excited at times.
P.S: The mods can move this thread to the Newbie section is they like

Hi Digger Hope this tutorial help's you out.Telnet -The number one Hacker's tool

By the sounds of your error it means that the machine is not accepting telnet connections. There is a post on this board that discusses remote starting of telnet but you must already have a certain level of control on the machine. I will look for it.

have you tried different terminals.. list as follows..

vt100
vt220
vt230
ansi
xterm
qnx

try a different string vt220 or 230

check also you have the latest winsock installed...and check firewall settings.... switch it off.. then try.

An oldtimer (just like me ) but still worth reading since the basics never changed may be found here
Telnet (Mining the Net, part I) and following sites thereafter

EDIT: doh! weren´t awake , brainlagged and badly missing caffeine input when i first read your post, digger, sorry, i missed the XP part .
It´s not necessarily so that your telnet skills are lackin anything, it might as well be the case it´s the XP workstation ya try to connect to. XP got some weird behavior regarding ICS and NAT settings internally. Actually i only got aware of that when i fell over

first of all it can't be xp home because it does'nt have telnet server on it only pro
second u need 2 map an admin share with an admin user pass combo
all windows telnet servers require NTLM authentication by default meaning u must be logged in locally with a user /pass that will work on the remote computer so you may be better of uploading netcat. the "net start tlntsvr" is really just showing off. if i was really cracking a system i would not start opening services for the admin 2 notice. it is only to illistrate the point that any command will work and that if u know your way around ms-dos you can pull off just about anything on a windows box

good luck and if i can help with anything else just ask

telnet is coool, if you want some tips u can visit here

sorry - wrong windows / post