Telnet FAQs

Telnet is a standard protocol for connecting to a remote machine. You can use telnet for a variety of things such as changing your password or checking your mail directly on the server. In order to take advantage of those utilities, you need a shell account. If you don't have a shell account already, see our Services page for information on getting one.

Once your shell account has been established, you need a telnet program. A basic telnet program is built into Windows 95/98. Take a look at our Downloads page for more advanced telnet programs.

1. Make sure you have established a connection to InterComm.
2. Connect to the server.

1. To use the built in program for Windows 95/98, simply click on your Start Menu, choose Run, and type telnet users.intercomm.com and click OK.

3. Once connected, the server will prompt you for your Username. Type this in and press Enter.
4. Next, the server will prompt you for your password. Type it in and press Enter. (Note that your password does not appear on the screen for your security.)
5. You are now in your shell account. You should see something like userid@sunspot /users/userid > This is your root directory. Here are just a few helpful commands you can use:

(Many of these commands can produce different outputs. To learn more about any of the commands, type "man" then the command. For instance, to learn about the "ls" command, type "man ls".)

ls - This command lists the files in your directory.

ls -la - This lists all files including hidden ones as well as giving more information.

cd - Allows you to open a directory. Try going into your html directory by typing "cd html". To get back to your root directory, simply type in "cd".

pine - This is a built in email program. It allows you to view your email directly on the server. This is very handy if someone sends you a very large file that you don't want to wait 20 minutes to download. You can simply delete it on the spot.

passwd - Use this command to change your password. You should change your password frequently.

ping - You can test to see if a machine is down by pinging the server name/IP. See the man pages for more info.

traceroute - Is your favorite website down? Find out! Traceroute to the address of the site. If the connection is good the traceroute should list the various machines the connection goes through and automatically exit back to your prompt. I f it hangs at one of the items in the list, you know that is where the problem lies. InterComm's IP addresses begin with 209.160. If the IP of the machine having the problem does not begin with these numbers, the problem lies further up the line. Inter Comm has no control over machines that are not part of our network. (If your traceroute hangs, press Control-C to exit.)

ftp - Built in FTP program that allows you to transfer files from a remote computer to your shell account. Type
"ftp hostname/IP"

irc - Internet Relay Chat

lynx - Did your web browser choke? Use this text-only browser to get what you're looking for. Takes some getting used to.

who - Find out who else is connected to the server.

talk - You can enter a chat session with people on the server. Type "talk userid". Press Control-C to exit.

logout - This will end your telnet session.