Mal

Im not 'new' new to the programming world, but im not an experienced person either.
I plan to do computer science at university next year etc etc. I have a Java book (sams 21 days, what else) and im working through that, so i understand what happens etc etc. Telnet, however, i found out about whilst looking through all the help sections on Internics website. And to be honest the thought of remote computers hadnt entered my mind until then, and then a lot of things made sense. For example, how the system admin at my high school/sixth form could chose, at any given time, to take control of the clients cursor etc. Maybe this is done through telnet in some form, maybe not, i dont know.
But the point being, im trying to 'get to know' telnet, and what it can do. So i looked on a few sites, looked for some tutorials etc etc. and im now as far as (having downloaded the GoodTech Telnet Server v5.0 if thats any help) the logging in stage. It comes with a nicely detailed help file which has, along with some obvious faults of mine being overlooked such as my firewall, enabled me to rectify most problems i've had upto now.
My telnet server is set up correctly (i believe) as instructed to by the help file. I then start the server and proceed to a browser window / CLI to access it.
Attempting access via the url, gives me the correct screen, and logs me in (according to the help file screenshot, and the logfile in the telnet server dir.) However, the following screenshot shows, under the logged in user list, the account "telnetd" and the ip, etc etc. as logged in. When i log in via URL it accepts my username and pw, yet doesnt list me in the active users list. (yes sys-admin is supposed to be there, as it is shown present in the screenshot from the help file)
I have control over the server and can do everything via the URL that i can via the dir itself, as it should be.
Then, puzzled by the lack of my presence on the browser GUI, i tried via CLI.
to my even greater confusion, it would open the server and yet would give the following output:

( text inside []'s is to be ignored. )
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to GoodTech's Telnet Server (evaluation copy)

Welcome to Mal's Telnet Server. Enjoy your stay. [ a test welcome message provided by the help file ]

Login Username: telnetd [this has to be the account with which to log in with]
Login Password: <passwordOfWindowsXPUser - telnetd>
Authentication is in progress...

Connection to host lost.

Press any key to continue.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ok, so maybe something other than my firewall is preventing me from "telnetting" to my own pc. (i am running, and trying to log in, from the same XP account, would this make a difference? and if so, would it be possible to rectify, bearing in mind im on a 64k isdn that wont allow multiple users to be connected to the net, so a CLI would have to be used, but would that work? (ill try that after this post and add info according)
Thinking maybe (as the password box within Control panel/ admin/ services/ goodtech/ log on tab contained the incorrect length pw each time i opened it, which i assume to be by default so as not to give away the correct length, ) my password was wrong or something, i tried one that i knew was wrong. and the following occured:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Welcome to GoodTech's Telnet Server (evaluation copy)

Welcome to Mal's Telnet Server. Enjoy your stay. [ a test welcome message provided by the help file ]

Login Username: telnetd [this has to be the account with which to log in with]
Login Password: <wrong password>
Authentication in progress...
Login failed...

Login username: timeout expired [ environment variable set to cut off idle login after 30 seconds ]

Connection to host lost.

press any key to continue..

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This can only lead me to believe that my password (the 'correct' one) is indeed correct and is authorised to access it, else the same scenario as the second case would occur.

Any help on getting past this would be much appreciated, as would any telnet tutorial site that is of beginner level.

feel free to download/try the goodtech server, it is only available on a month trial period and im only 4 days into that.
All help greatly received.
Mal.

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Mal - "At the source of every error which is blamed on the computer, you will find at least two human errors, including the error of blaming it on the computer." :: "A good programmer is someone who looks both ways before crossing a one-way street."

Mal

No luck on a few things i tried, one more thing that came up and puzzled me, i have a third account on the pc "family" and this has (as of earlier) as password on it, and yet, by typing this password 'correctly' into the relevant field, i get the same outcome as the 2nd scenario beforehand (all users are set as computer admins for XP) oh also, XP Pro, SP2 if that makes any difference, i know sp2 was prodominantly security minded.
Thanks for any help.
Mal.

__________________
Mal - "At the source of every error which is blamed on the computer, you will find at least two human errors, including the error of blaming it on the computer." :: "A good programmer is someone who looks both ways before crossing a one-way street."

mackenga

Hmm. I'm not familiar with the software you're using and can't really download it and try it, but I can say a few things which might be helpful.

First, you're right in your deduction that the password you're entering must be correct since the behavour is different when you deliberately enter the wrong one. I'd suggest that 30sec of idle time is a bit tight; you might want to increase that. I'm not sure if this is what's causing your problem, but it may have something to do with it.

Another possible problem is that when a telnet server has logged a user in, it wants to start a 'shell' program for them to use. On WinXP, the shell is the DOS CLI. You should make sure the server is set up to start that all right, because otherwise you might get the symptoms you're reporting when it tries to start it and fails.

I don't think, now that you've set up your firewall to let you do this (or disabled your firewall, whichever it was) that any software on the machine is blocking your login. I think it's more likely to be a configuration problem with the server than any problem with other software mixing in.

Berto

You tried telneting to another server that you know has telnet running also i would look up SSH which is basically telnet but all comunication is encrypted so its harder for people to spy on what you are doing.

Also i belive telnet on a windows box is not the best of things to do, most of the stuff your system admin is doing is will be remote desktop which is a tool that comes with windows xp so that they can see what you are doing and take over the computer etc etc....

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u...moteintro.mspx

__________________
"Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT'S relativity."

- Albert Einstein