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JohnKennington

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Linux Telnet Failing

Hi,

I cannot get telnet working on a RedHat 9.0 system.  Here is the error message:

Connecting To 192.168.0.191...Could not open connection to the host, on port 23
 Connect failed


Here is my telnet file contents:

# default: on
# description: The telnet server serves telnet sessions; it uses \
#      unencrypted username/password pairs for authentication.
service telnet
{
      disable            = no
      flags            = REUSE
      socket_type      = stream        
      wait            = no
      user            = root
      server            = /usr/sbin/in.telnetd
      log_on_failure      += USERID
}

Firewall is off, so port 23 is open.

any help would be appreciated.
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jlevie

On the server, what happens if you do 'telnet localhost? If that works the problem is most likely to be a firewall. The default firewall on a RedHat 9 box wiuld use IPtables, so '/sbin/iptables -L' should only show ACCEPT for all chains.
Another thing to check - is the telnetd even running?

ps -ef | grep telnetd

..in which case, you'll need to start it up:)

/etc/init.d/telnetd start

HTH:)
The best way to debug this issue would be to edit your  /etc/syslog.conf and type in the following

*.*                                            > /dev/tty12

save it and restart your syslog service (type in /sbin/service syslogd restart). Also restart your xinetd (/sbin/service xinetd restart). Once that is done

try telneting again. Than press Alt-F12 on your linux box to see the error. you probably can resolve the issue yourself. Most likely telnetd is not installed. Type in "rpm -q telnetd" to make sure it is installed.

Thanks
Don't know how this is on RH (9.0), but isn't telnet started via inetd/xinetd? Check your /etc/(x)inetd.conf.

A.
Avatar of JohnKennington

ASKER

I gave up on this and decided to use ssh instead.  It connects fine.  For some reason, telnet will not work.
There might be multiple problems:

1. The xinetd is not configured properly.
2. The ptys are not mounted in /etc/fstab file.
3. There are no ptys on your machine.
4. The firewall is not allowing it.

If ssh is working, its better than telnet anyday ;)
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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Mark
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