Telnet

Telnet is probably one of the least common uses for the Internet. It allows a person to login to another computer over the Internet, thus giving you to access the information on that server. However, you can only telnet into a server that has been set up to allow such access, and you are pretty much limited to the text-based Unix shell when doing so.

To telnet into a site, you must have the software to do so installed on your computer. Windows 95 comes with such an application, and many web browsers will now allow you to telnet by typing in "telnet:" followed by the address where you're trying to go into the Location window (where you normally enter the URL for a website).

Once you connect to the computer you're trying to telnet into, you have to login using a login name and password. Some computers allow "anonymous" telnet sessions to allow the public to browse the contents of that computer system.

With the advent of the World Wide Web, though, which has become the method of choice for posting information for public consumption, use of Telnet has probably declined. Currently, the most popular uses of telnet seem to be bulletin boards, "talkers" (chat rooms) and games (particularly those of the MUD variety). Other than that, I imagine only sys admins and computer professionals who need to do work on another computer use Telnet with any regularity.

Basically, if you don't know what telnet is, then you probably don't need to know!

One thing to note about telnet is that it is not entirely secure. In light of this, many people prefer Secure Shell (ssh) such as Tera Term SSH.