Installing Telnet on a newer Mac

[ILoveCalvinCool]

So why the heck did they remove telnet? It's not exactly resource intensive and people are still bound to need it for this and that.

 

[bradl]

Legacy device doesn't mean it doesn't support ssh. ssh has been available for over 20 years.

Plus, if you read my post to the end, I recommended putty which supports telnet (admittedly, after suggesting they try ssh instead 😁)

For the time being, I'd actually avoid putty, unless you'd like to invite the DPRK into your systems..

Trojanized versions of PuTTY utility being used to spread backdoor

Threat actor has connections to hackers backed by North Korean government.

arstechnica.com

BL.

 

[bradl]

So why the heck did they remove telnet? It's not exactly resource intensive and people are still bound to need it for this and that.

Telnet sends all packet data in clear text format. So anyone with any type of packet sniffer (ethereal, Wireshark, tcpdump, Solarwinds, etc.) can grab those packets and decode all data in it, including usernames/passwords. Same applies for ftp, tftp, all of the r* services (rsh, rlogin, rcp, etc.).

BL.

 

[kwikdeth]

Sadly, I have to keep a Windows in Parallels instance so I can use PuTTY. Putty for the Mac stopped being updated years ago and doesn't work on any new macOS software for the last half decade.

That error is telling me you are being blocked from brew possibly, telnet definitely.

"Connection reset by peer" is essentially a rude hangup. It means you have either been blocked by the server or something between you and the server is tampering with the TCP connection.

My brother, if you're keeping a VM to run an ssh client, just use SecureCRT... Tabbed sessions FTW. I'll never go back to PuTTY

 

[Danfango]

You can use "screen" on the terminal as a telnet client. Can't remember how the hell to do it though 🤣

I spend nearly my entire day in Terminal.app on remote machines. Don't need anything else.

 

[Arctic Moose]

Legacy device doesn't mean it doesn't support ssh. ssh has been available for over 20 years.

Good point. And obviously correct, as well, as it appears ssh actually is available.

Bad assumption on my part, sorry.

 

[TriciaMacMillan]

Sadly, I have to keep a Windows in Parallels instance so I can use PuTTY. Putty for the Mac stopped being updated years ago and doesn't work on any new macOS software for the last half decade.

What do you need PuTTY for that ssh and nc can’t do for you?

 

[robbietop]

What do you need PuTTY for that ssh and nc can’t do for you?

I don't like CLI, sorry. I can save my SSH/Telnet/Serial Line settings saved in Putty and easily with a GUI tinker with settings. I get it, Terminal can do this. But I was in a very corporate network environ with hundreds of VMWare/RHEL/AWS instances as well as thousands of small terminals running various different software (Polycom/Linksys/Mitel/Cisco IOS/Nortel/Avaya/etc) and Putty was just soooo much easier.

I had Royal TSX, and it was great for maintaining public and private keys, but it had a habit of being slow and clunky, plus Nortel did NOT like it at all and refused connections and at my last job, connecting to Nortel was a requirement. If you could not, you couldn't work.

I'm just not a big CLI fan, never have been.

 

[robbietop]

My brother, if you're keeping a VM to run an ssh client, just use SecureCRT... Tabbed sessions FTW. I'll never go back to PuTTY

SecureCRT for Mac is not as good as the Windows version. Plus, at that price, was way out of my price range. Royal TS X was more affordable but some equipment (Nortel) did not like it and would randomly disconnect.

I used the Windows partition for some apps that just don't have a Mac equivalent such as WinSCP. I searched far and wide and wasn't gonna spend money on something WinSCP does for free and my employer gave me an OEM Win10/11 key for free.

SecureCRT and RoyalTSX though both do not work as wonderfully with older Cisco IOS or Nortel equipment. IADs, BTS, and UCM all have issues maintaining hours long connections, which for me was my job everyday logged into them and running tests.

 

[Arctic Moose]

I don't like CLI, sorry. I can save my SSH/Telnet/Serial Line settings saved in Putty and easily with a GUI tinker with settings.

I used Termius for iPhone and iPad before iSH came along and allowed me to revert back to the cli I prefer.

It seems Termius is available for Mac too, and perhaps does what you want?

Termius - SSH platform for Mobile and Desktop

Termius helps to organize the work of multiple DevOps and engineering teams. It reduces the admin work for managing users. Enterprise compliance. SOC2 II report.

www.termius.com

(Hey, look at that, @Videot27, the free version even has Telnet support.)

 

[robbietop]

I used Termius for iPhone and iPad before iSH came along and allowed me to revert back to the cli I prefer.

It seems Termius is available for Mac too, and perhaps does what you want?

Termius - SSH platform for Mobile and Desktop

Termius helps to organize the work of multiple DevOps and engineering teams. It reduces the admin work for managing users. Enterprise compliance. SOC2 II report.

www.termius.com

(Hey, look at that, @Videot27, the free version even has Telnet support.)

I tried Termius first. They just didn't solve the issues I was having. And my public and private keys didn't play nice inside of it. I tried everything, but sometimes just glitched out.

Termius just couldn't handle the thousands of connections I wanted saved. Ended up with RoyalTSX for everything that didn't require Putty. The lab I was in had 2500-3000 devices I needed access to weekly.

Thank you, though for trying.