[techtalk] Almost arrested for using telnet

[Mary Gardiner]

On Wed, Apr 11, 2001 at 11:14:34AM +1000, jenn at simegen.com wrote:
> Tami Friedman wrote:
> >  	  For now, I am curious if anyone
> >         can give me a good reason why a sysadmin would not allow telnet to
> >         be used (when the m$ equivalent of a daemon) is not disabled?
> 
> Well, an unrelated reason is that SSH is far, FAR more secure.
> It doesn't plaintext-send stuff like passwords.
> 
> But that's not related to this particular problem. Hrm.

It seems more likely to be a knee-jerk response.

When I was at school, one of the 'Internet Rules' was:

* No downloading.

I actually did try to explain this one, but they regarded my explanations as
pedantic, so I felt free to download a lot of things... (useful things, such as
Winzip, or old exam papers or whatever).

Use of things like telnet, or anything that isn't the web, is regarded as
generally suspicious by people who staff things like library terminals.

They tend to think you've hacked their computer, or are in the process of
hacking someone elses. This particular guy recognised the program - you might
get even worse responses from someone who doesn't.

Actually, that's one reason they might object to telnet. They really wouldn't
want someone to be using their terminals to gain unauthorised access to other
people's machines.

Mary.

-- 
Mary Gardiner
<mary at puzzling.org>
GPG Key ID: 77625870