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FAQ - Table of Contents

0.1
I have Firefox, but a few telnet links still don't work. Why?
1
Some sites mentioned in this category and especially in the Individual Systems subcategory provide links beginning with "telnet:" or "telnet://" (without the quotes). However, when I click on those links, they just don't work. What's wrong?
2
How can I manually start a telnet session?
3
When I telnet to a BBS some screens display weird characters. Is this normal?
4
What character set should I choose when using such a client?


0.1
Q: I have Firefox, but a few telnet links still don't work. Why?
A:
If you take a closer look at these links, you'll probably see that they look like telnet:domain.tld instead of telnet://domain.tld . In such a case, the best thing to do is to consider this as a syntax error and to start a telnet session to domain.tld after stripping out the "telnet:".(note to editors: telnet: links do work fine with Firefox, my problem was that I had deactived JavaScript which is needed to make telnet links work).
by stegozor at 2007-11-06 20:01:22
1
Q: Some sites mentioned in this category and especially in the Individual Systems subcategory provide links beginning with "telnet:" or "telnet://" (without the quotes). However, when I click on those links, they just don't work. What's wrong?
A:
You are probably using Internet Explorer 7. Microsoft dropped telnet protocol handler support in Internet Explorer 7, and the author of these lines couldn't manage to understand why. The easiest workaround for this problem is called Mozilla Firefox.
by stegozor at 2007-11-06 19:44:30
2
Q: How can I manually start a telnet session?
A:
Regardless of your operating system, you should open a console window. This can be called Terminal depending on your operating system. Under Windows, this is simply a Dos window. Then, just type telnet domain.tld and press return.
by stegozor at 2007-11-06 19:41:42
3
Q: When I telnet to a BBS some screens display weird characters. Is this normal?
A:
Yes and no. You are probably using the so-called Dos window of Windows which no longer supports the ANSI character set. Although Windows' telnet may be enough for a quick visit, it's much better to replace it with a decent client such as PuTTY, which is free and open source. Computers/Internet/Protocols/SSH/Clients/Windows/ lists many clients.
by stegozor at 2007-11-02 22:28:55
4
Q: What character set should I choose when using such a client?
A:
CP866. Old MS-DOS versions and the current FreeDOS fully support this character set but under Windows you'll need a standalone telnet client and then you will have to specify this character set.
by stegozor at 2007-11-02 21:35:15