TELNET AND REMOTE LOGIN

INTRODUCTION

Telnet is a user command and an underlying TCP/IP protocol for accessing remote
computers. Through Telnet, an administrator or another user can access someone else's
computer remotely. On the Web, HTTP and FTP protocols allow you to request specific files
from remote computers, but not to actually be logged on as a user of that computer. With
Telnet, you log on as a regular user with whatever privileges you may have been granted to
the specific application and data on that computer.

A Telnet command request looks like this (the computer name is made-up): The result
of this request would be an invitation to log on with a userid and a prompt for a password. If
accepted, you would be logged on like any user who used this computer every day. Telnet is
most likely to be used by program developers and anyone who has a need to use specific
applications or data located at a particular host computer. TELNET and FTP are Application
Level Internet protocols. The TELNET and FTP protocol specifications have been
implemented by many different sources, including The National Center for Supercomputer
Applications (NCSA), and many other public domain and shareware sources.

The programs implementing the TELNET protocol are usually called telnet, but not
always. Some notable exceptions are tn3270, WinQVT, and QWS3270, which are also
TELNET protocol implementations. TELNET is used for remote login to other computers on
the Internet. The programs implementing the FTP protocol are usually called ftp, but there are
exceptions to that too. A program called Fetch, distributed by Dartmouth College, WS_FTP,
written and distributed by John Junod, and Ftptool, written by a Mike Sullivan, are FTP
protocol implementations with graphic user interfaces.

There's an enhanced FTP version, ncftp, that allows additional features, written by
Mike Gleason. Also, FTP protocol implementations are often included in TELNET
implementation programs, such as the ones distributed by NCSA. FTP is used for transferring
files between computers on the Internet. Rlogin is a remote login service that was at one time
exclusive to Berkeley 4.3 BSD UNIX. Essentially, it offers the same functionality as telnet,
except that it passes to the remote computer information about the user's login environment.

1
 Machines can be configured to allow connections from trusted hosts without
prompting for the users' passwords. A more secure version of this protocol is the Secure
SHell, SSH, software written by Tatu Ylonen and available via ftp://ftp.net.ohio-
state.edu/pub/security/ssh. From a Unix prompt, these programs are invoked by typing the
command (program name) and the (Internet) name of the remote machine to which to
connect. You can also specify various options, as allowed, for these commands.

SYNTAX

telnet [options] [ remote_host [ port_number ] ]

tn3270 [options] [ remote_host [ port_number ] ]

ftp [options] [ remote_host ]

RLOGIN (REMOTE LOGIN)

Rlogin (remote login) is a UNIX command that allows an authorized user to login to
other UNIX machines (hosts) on a network and to interact as if the user were physically at the
host computer. Once logged in to the host, the user can do anything that the host has given
permission for, such as read, edit, or delete files. Remote login is one of the most popular
Internet applications. Instead of having a hardwired terminal on each host, we can login to
one host and then remote login across the network to any other host (that we have an account
on, of course).

Two popular applications provide remote login across TCP/IP internets.

Telnet is a standard application that almost every TCP/IP implementation

provides. It works between hosts that use different operating systems. Telnet uses
option negotiation between the client and server to determine what features each
end can provide.

Rlogin is from Berkeley Unix and was developed to work between Unix systems
only, but it has been ported to other operating systems also.

2
 In this assignment we look at both Telnet and Rlogin. We start with Rlogin because
it's simpler.

Telnet is one of the oldest of the Internet applications, dating back to 1969 on the
ARPANET. Its name is actually an acronym that stands for "telecommunications network
protocol." Remote login uses the client-server paradigm. Figure shows the typical
arrangement of the Telnet client and server. (We could draw a similar picture for an Rlogin
client and server.)

Overview of Telnet client-server.

There are numerous points in this figure.

The Telnet client interacts with both the user at the terminal and the TCP/IP
protocols. Normally everything we type is sent across the TCP connection, and
everything received from the connection is output to our terminal.

The Telnet server often deals with what's called a pseudo-terminal device, at
least under Unix systems.

This makes it appear to the login shell that's invoked on the server, and to any
programs run by the login shell, that they're talking to a terminal device. Some
applications, such as full-screen editors, assume they're talking to a terminal
device. Indeed, making the login shell on the server think that it's talking to a
terminal is often one of the hardest programming aspects involved in writing a
remote login server.

Only a single TCP connection is used. Since there are times when the Telnet
client must talk to the Telnet server (and vice versa) there needs to be some

3
 way to delineate commands that are sent across the connection, versus user
data. We'll see how both Telnet and Rlogin handle this.

We show dashed boxes in Figure 26.1 to note that the terminal and pseudo
terminal drivers, along with the TCP/IP implementation, are normally part of
the operating system kernel. The Telnet client and server, however, are often
user applications.

We show the login shell on the server host to reiterate that we have to login to
the server. We must have an account on that system to login to it, using either
Telnet or Rlogin.

It is interesting to compare the complexity of Telnet and Rlogin by looking at the

number of lines of source code required to implement the client and server for each. Figure
shows these counts for the standard Telnet and Rlogin client and server, as distributed in
different versions from Berkeley.

Comparison of Telnet/Rlogin/client/server, number of lines of source code.

It is the continuing addition of new options to Telnet that causes its implementation to
grow, while Rlogin remains simple and stable. Remote login is not a high-volume data
transfer application. As we've mentioned earlier, lots of small packets are normally
exchanged between the two end systems. [Paxson 1993] found that the ratio of bytes sent by
the client (the user typing at the terminal) to the number of bytes sent back by the server is
about 1:20. This is because we type short commands that often generate lots of output.

CONCLUSION
4
 Rlogin is similar to the better known Telnet command. Rlogin is considered useful for
simple logins that don't require a lot of control over the client/host interaction, but is thought
to be less useful than Telnet where a lot of customization is desired.

For multiple sessions, for connections between very distant terminals or to terminals
that are not running UNIX, for that matter, since rlogin can only connect to UNIX hosts. A
benefit of rlogin is the ability to use a file called .rhosts that resides on the host machine and
maintains a list of terminals allowed to login without a password.

REFERENCES

http://isp.vsi.ru/library/Networking/TCPIPIllustrated/telnet.htm
https://books.google.co.in/books?
id=j2VtdjpurI4C&pg=PT307&lpg=PT307&dq=Telnet+and+remote+login+
https://www.cs.duke.edu/csl/docs/unix_course/intro-101.html
https://www.accuwebhosting.com/discussion/forum/peer-support/how-to-s/645-
how-to-connect-to-the-remote-computer-using-telnet
http://mars.netanya.ac.il/~unesco/cdrom/booklet/HTML/NETWORKING/node30
0.html