Telnet

Telnet provides a remote logon capability, which enables a user at a terminal or personal computer to logon to a remote computer and function as if directly connected to that computer. The protocol was designed to work with simple scroll-mode terminals. Telnet is actually implemented in two modules: User TELNET interacts with the terminal I/O module to communicate with a local terminal. It converts the characteristics of real terminals to the network standard, and vice versa. Server TELNET interacts with an application, acting as a surrogate terminal handler so that remote terminals appear as local to the application. Terminal traffic between user and server TELNET is carried on a TCP connection. The TELNET application provided a common-denominator terminal. If software was written for each type of computer to support the "TELNET terminal," one terminal could interact with all computer types.