Telnet Server is a gateway for Telnet clients. When Telnet Server is running on a computer, users can use Telnet clients to connect to it from remote computers. When a Telnet client connects to the Telnet server, the remote user is asked to enter a user name and password. By default, only user name and password combinations that are valid on the local server can be used to log on to that server.
Once logged on, a user is given a command prompt that can be used as if it had been opened in a command prompt window locally, allowing the user to execute commands and run MS-DOS applications.
If a user enters a command to run a Windows application on a computer running Telnet Server, the Windows application will run but will not display a window. The Windows application will automatically terminate when the user disconnects from the computer running Telnet Server. If it is necessary to terminate the application before the user disconnects, the ps and kill commands can be used to identify and terminate the application, or the Administrator of the computer running Telnet Server can use Task Manager to close the application.
Telnet uses the Telnet protocol (part of the TCP/IP protocol suite) to connect to a remote computer over the network.
Telnet Server provides full support of the Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) as well as Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4). You cannot, however, use IPv6 addresses with Services for UNIX Administration or tnadmin to administer a remote computer, other than to list sessions (the –s option).
All members of the Administrators group can use Telnet to access the system. Access to the system through Telnet Server by other users is controlled by membership in the TelnetClients group. By default, this group contains no entries. If you want to allow users who are not administrators to access the system using Telnet, add the appropriate users or groups to the TelnetClients group.
This table shows the maximum number of devices that can that can be connected to Telnet Server at the same time:
| Telnet Server installed on | Maximum number of connected devices |
|---|---|
| Windows NT Workstation, Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP Professional | 10 |
| Windows NT Server, Windows 2000 Server | Up to the available client-access licenses |
Up to 100 simultaneous connections are permitted from each device.