I have upgraded some SPARC workstations from Solaris 7 to Solaris 9. When I try to telnet into them, I am refused connection for some of the SPARC stations but not for other. I can ssh into all of them (if I ran ssh from a box that has ssh client). I checked /etc/services, and telnet is listed on all of them. Could anyone help me with starting telnet service on Solaris 9?

Thanks

Shin,
Make sure it is enabled (not commented out) in /etc/inetd.conf. /etc/services just translates the numbers to names. Mine reads

# TELNETD - telnet server daemon
telnet stream tcp6 nowait root /usr/sbin/in.telnetd in.telnetd

Also, ask yourself if you really need it. Doesn't ssh work just fine?

Have fun,
chris

ssh is basically the same thing as telnet but its secure, so I'm unsure why you would want telnet running, its just an open security hole to me.

trickykid,

The only problem with ssh is it can be slow on old machines (like an IPX), but using ssh v. 1 (ssh -1) is usually quick enough.

On that note, I should see if I can get the old IBM machine (AIX 3 something) running. Have to scrounge the net for some cracks. Don't know what I'll use the machine for. Or if I can get decent software for it. Anyone know if AIX 4 is available? Last time I checked, I couldn't run anything else on it.

Have fun,
chris

Thanks for your help/comments.

I am running telnet since I am maintaining some legacy systems, like PDGS (Ford's CAD system which is on its way out) Data Collector (CAD File server), which runs on Solaris 2.6 or earlier. As a supplier, we must keep the files alive for five years after the last car of the model rolls off the assembly line (which has not happened yet). I could try to install patches and things, but since it is not broken, I'd rather not touch it. PDGS has been on its way our for quite some time, and it is very difficult to find support for PDGS administration.

The other reason is, we have a lot of Doze boxes. I could install something like putty (ssh client for Doze, which works pretty well), or make it available on a network drive, but telnet is too popular and easy.

Tlenet is strictly for inside our LAN. I always user ssh to do anything outside.

Most importantly, telnet server is started on some of Solaris 9 boxes, and not on some of them. I thought I installed them the same way and am wondering why. Could it be because they are different hardware versions? If I decide to discontinue telnet, I would like to know how to do it properly. /etc/indetd.conf has the line for telnet uncommented. Ditto with /etc/default/inetinit. So I will keep looking.

Shin,

Is inetd listening to port 23? "Connection refused" means nothing is listening. I would make sure that /usr/sbin/in.telnetd is a proper executable. Check your logs to see if inetd is having problems starting it. Perhaps in.telnetd didn't get upgraded? Have you reloaded inetd? Try restarting it.

I don't think /etc/default/inetinit has anything to do with telnet (at least on this Solaris 9 box). It appears just to hold a single TCP setting (TCP_STRONG_ISS) and is only used by /etc/init.d/inetinit. I'm no solaris expert though.

/etc/default/telnetd only seems to be used for setting BANNER. No help there.

Good Luck,
chris

P.S.
I've gotten too used to the linux tools. netstat just seems so limited on solaris. Grrr... What is the proper way to see who has a socket open?

You must log in as root and supply the name of the ip's you want to allow telnet access through.

# xhost + 192.168.0.3

There is a way to keep the list updated after a reboot, but until you find out, this is the quick and dirty way.

Don't forget to set your display setting if you have an x-session running on your pc.

set DISPLAY=198.162.0.3:0.0

Anyone know how to make the filemanager appear with code inserted into the prompt? (Solaris 9 x-session/telnet)

I know it used to be...

# filemgr &