accessing the linux box remotely

[ashahata]

Hi there,
I have linux Suse 8.0 and I'm trying to telnet to it from another machine, but I keep getting connection failed! I can ping the machine fine, so it is visible... I also tried to create an Exceed session to it, but again it gave an error saying that the display method is not correct!

Is there any extra configuration required beside the ip setup and gateway?

Thanks

[z0mbix]

Please, for your own sake, do not use telnet! Use OpenSSH instead as it uses encryption where telnet doesn't. It comes with SuSE. Have you checked /etc/services to see if the services you require are not commented out.

[cowanrl]

Since Telnet is so insecure, some distributions don't even install the Telnet daemon by default. I know Red Hat doesn't on certain installation types. If they do install it, Telnet isn't started by default.

I'm not familiar with Suse, but you may have to install or at least start the Telnet service to be able to use it.

To further amplify what cheeky_zombie said, if you've ever run a packet sniffer when someone is telneting in to a box, all usernames and passwords are displayed on the screen in plain text. Is you su to root, root's password is displayed on the screen in plain text.

On a small home network, using telnet is usually no problem. On a corporate LAN, using telnet is an extreme security risk. SSH is definitely the way to go. In contrast to telnet, most distributions do install and start the sshd daemon by default.

Since Windows machines don't come with an SSH client, the best tool to use is putty. It's a small exe(about 300k) available here:

http://garbo.uwasa.fi/pub/linux/SuSE/8.0/dosutils/putty/

Copy it in to your Windows directory and instead of typing telnet <ipaddress> just type putty <ipaddress>.

[ashahata]

Thanks for the advise falks...

btw - I downloaded putty.exe but everytime I enter my machine ip address for the session I get a connection failed error !? Any idea where things r going wrong?

Thanks

[z0mbix]

Is the sshd daemon running? Try:

ps ax | grep sshd

If not, try starting it the way you start other daemons. eg.:

/etc/init.d/sshd start

but I don't know if that's correct for SuSE as I haven't used SuSE too much.

[swangods]

any suggestions for running a terminal on a remote linux box from a linux box? ie. putty is great from windows... its interface as a telnet-like sessions is nice. there is gputty listed on freshmeat.net, but it says it's not a terminal session. i'll give it a try anyway, but just wondering if anybody watching this thread had any suggestions.

or can ssh act as a client...?

[swangods]

Originally posted by swangods
any suggestions for running a terminal on a remote linux box from a linux box? ie. putty is great from windows... its interface as a telnet-like sessions is nice. there is gputty listed on freshmeat.net, but it says it's not a terminal session. i'll give it a try anyway, but just wondering if anybody watching this thread had any suggestions.

or can ssh act as a client...?

if only i had more patience and actually tried it first:

ssh -l william <host_to_connect_to>

*smacking forehead!*