Linux Mint Forums

Hello. I am happy with the look and feel of Mint but
a big problem is that any connection that depends on telnet seems to be a no-go

telnet (any address except localhost) gives connection refused.

I have googled but no solution seems to work for this Mint (64 bit second release of debian version)
Thanks in advance for any pointers.

In case anyone is wondering why you would need telnet well some game servers
(http://www.freechess.org) need it to connect to them, Yes it works on Ubuntu.

Telnet is a BIG FAT Security hole.
Probably the biggest in Linux.

Here's a safe test. The Tech Support Excuse Generator telnet tool

telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl 666

output:
=== The BOFH Excuse Server ===
<excuse here>

Connection closed by foreign host.

The "Connection closed by foreign host" is normal.
That works then you're golden.

I am aware of the possible security implications if you are accepting
telnet connections into your machine.
But telnetting into a host should be an option especially when ssh is not an option.
Trusted source- trusted users. On this server millions have been trusting it for over ten years.
What could go wrong?

This is the only distro that seems to make it impossible to do.

I'm not familiar with telnet in linux, however do you have the firewall enabled? If so, if you know what port(s) telnet uses you can add them to your firewall.

I just did a search in the /etc/services file and found this:
telnets 992/tcp # Telnet over SSL
telnets 992/udp

Thanks for your reply.
The firewall is not enabled(this is a first install)
but I am connected via wifi (the internet connection is set to be "direct")
Here is some output.

> cat /etc/services |grep telnet

elnet 23/tcp
rtelnet 107/tcp # Remote Telnet
rtelnet 107/udp
telnets 992/tcp # Telnet over SSL
telnets 992/udp
tfido 60177/tcp # fidonet EMSI over telnet

Not sure if there are any clues there..

If you are using a wireless connection, you must have a router, and you should check the firewall settings on the router (you may have to log in to the router with a wired connection to check those settings).

Well, I live in a hotel/apartment with a free wifi package so it is simply not practical to check "my"
router.
In my opinion this is a showstopper to any plans for Debian Mint being a good replacement for Ubuntu or other distros.
Like I said, No configuration needed in Ubuntu(any version) or other unix/linux versions even with a cheap hotel router.

I see no reason why Mint/Debian would block telnet. Of cource it's not encrypted, but that's the case with many other protocols (HTTP, FTP, s.o.).

krell wrote:telnet (any address except localhost) gives connection refused.

That sounds like the server refuses the connection on that port

Did you try connecting to another host via telnet as Habitual suggested? You can also try if netcat works

Hi,

I live in a hotel/apartment with a free wifi package

You might want to check with the network / server admin of this wifi package. They might block connection to port 23.

You can also try PuTTY installed via wine, it has a telnet potion also

Regards,

Yes nc 23 http://www.freechess.org gives nothing
so that port is blocked.

But the usual telnet connection ports for that server are 5000 and 23 and they are
tried in that order by any chess client that connects to it. . It is port 5000 that usually works.
It does not in Debian Mint.

However all is well in standard Mint 10(Ubuntu) which I am now using
and I am now connected on port 5000 so obviously port 5000 is not blocked by our router.

So how to enable port 5000 for telnet in Debian Mint
would be the next question.
Really I think the user should not have to go through such hassles(yes I know this is linux)

Hi,

I'm using stock mint9, and I tried something like Seems to be OK

Regards,

unexistance wrote:Hi,

I'm using stock mint9, and I tried something like

Code: Select all

administrator@ms-nx6120 ~ $ telnet www.freechess.org 5000
Trying 69.36.243.189...
Connected to www.freechess.org.
Escape character is '^]'.
^]

telnet> Connection closed.

Seems to be OK

Regards,

Stock Mint is OK. Reread my last post carefully.
It's Debian Mint that cannot connect to 5000 or 23

The Debian Wiki pages have a few links for you to look at.

http://wiki.debian.org/Network?action=f ... earch=Text

Don't know if any of them will help ... but, it's worth a "look and see"