# Telnet

Telnet is the traditional protocol for making remote console connections over TCP. Telnet is not secure and is mainly used to connect to legacy equipment nowadays. For a secure alternative see SSH.

Follow these instructions to configure an Arch Linux machine as a telnet server.

## Installation

To use telnet only to connect to other machines, install inetutils.

To configure a telnet server, install xinetd as well.

## Configuration

To allow telnet connections in xinetd, edit `/etc/xinetd.d/telnet`, change `disable = yes` to `disable = no` and restart xinetd service.

Enable systemd xinetd service if you wish to start it at boot time.

### Testing the setup

Try opening a telnet connection to your server:

    $ telnet localhost

Note that you can not login as root.

Category:

- Networking