[lug] Beginner Question

[Scott A. Herod]

Hello,

  Telnet ( the server ), at least, can be turned on with chkconfig.
Check "man chkconfig".  To turn it on or off with chkconfig use

chkconfig --level 5 telnet on  ( resp. off )

(Level 5 is the run level which is used when the box
is running an X interface. )

The problem with using telnet as a service that you log in through
is that the password that you type to get in goes across the wire
in clear text.  It is easy for someone to watch all the traffic
passing into a box and pull the clear text passwords out of the
stream.  ( man ifconfig for a starting point to see how to do it on
your box. )

SSH uses encrypted passwords which makes it harder for someone to
use the data on the wire to pretend to be you.  There is ssh client
software for Windows that you can download.  Of course if you are
on an isolated network it doesn't really matter if you use telnet.
For example, at home I have to boxes wired together without an
external interface.  There I use telnet because I don't think that
I have to worry about my kids sniffing the passwords, yet.

Scott

Greg Horne wrote:
> 
> When I was a "beginner" I installed RH7 (workstation install) and discovered
> that ftp and telnet do not work.  I tried installing the packages
> individually, but it still would not work.  So I formatted and reinstalled
> this time doing it custom style, making sure to select ftp and telnet.
> Since Red Hat has a dependency checker it (I guess) found everything I
> needed and worked.  So either A. Use "Server Installation" or B. Use "Custom
> Installation" making sure to select ftp and telnet.  BTW, am I correct in
> assuming FTP and TELNET are disabled by default on workstations for security
> reasons?
> 
> Greg Horne
> 
> >From: "Chad Wasinger" <cswasinger at qwest.net>
> >Reply-To: lug at lug.boulder.co.us
> >To: lug at lug.boulder.co.us
> >Subject: [lug] Beginner Question
> >Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2001 20:58:35 -0600
> >
> >Now that finnaly have RH7.1 installed, my Telnet seems to be disabled. I
> >checked no firewall on install because I wanted to configure that myself.
> >So
> >it is not blocked by a firewall. I checked etc/services and telnet is not
> >commented out. Has anyone seen this?
> >
> >Thanks!
> >
> >Chad
> >