I know telnet is like an ftp but when i connect to a server i dont know what to do with is.

Telnet used to be used for remote coman line logins. but today we use shh(secure shell) because of its encryption support.

when you run the command "telnet <server> <port>"
a tcp open connection request is sent to the specified port on the specified server. then assuming the server accpts the connection you an now *talk* to the server.

And data that the server sends you, regardless of type will be displayed on the screen in ascii code. And keys that you hit will be sent to the server.

so for eample, if i ran "telnet yahoo.com 80" i would connect to yahoo's web server (port 80 is standard http)

i would then sen HTTP requests like "GET /index.html"
the server woul send the html code of index.html.

if i sent the request "GET /picy.jpg" the binary data of the picture would be dumped to screen (would look like random garbage)

you can use telnet to connect to any server which uses a plain english protocol, like http, pop / smtp mail servers, telnet servers.

but you would have a very hard time using telnet to connect to a counter strike server, or an encrypted protocol like https, ssh, or anything through an OpenSSH tunnel.

So is telnet still being used for any other uses except MUD games? I see more people using telnet for MUDs than doing some sort of crazy application regarding the interaction between server and yourself?

During your explanation of your version of what telnet is like, i can tell something very suspicous coming out of your text. OK I'm thinking: If you are able to just type GET/ index.html from the yahoo server (Of course i know its protected) then are you able to GET more things out of it? This telnet thing might be a key tool in a hacker's kit.
Do you think so?

When you point your web browser at yahoo.com/index.html all your web browser is doinf is making a connection to port 80, and sending that same GET command to the web server (apache / IIS)

And yes, telnet can be used to do naughty things.
for example, most web sites prevent image hot linking (linking an image on their server from a different web site) that way this works is by looking at the HTTP command "REFERER" and making sure that the parameter to this command is a web page on the same web server.

you could quite easily use telnet to send a http request with a false referer parameter, and hotlink protection would not work.

but there's nothing hacker like about it. its just great for learning how protocols work.

read the post in the tutorials section about how to communicate wih a mail server, and send and recieve email using telnet.

I have one question though - how do you send multiple lines at once using telnet?

In my case it's for a cyber war challenge... been sitting here for hours LOL

GET *******/level19.php HTTP/1.1
Referer : http://blahblah.com
User-agent : some name they invented

The issue is, I can connect perfectly ok, the GET works, I get a success, but I need to be able to send the referer and User-agent in ONE line, since after the GET the connection closes.

In case someone doubts my intentions - it is legal LOL.

I am also wondering, I use FireFox and am a member of a few MSN groups, now when you post through the webpage in IE it gives you a nice looking WYSIWYG type of thing. Sadly in any browser othen than IE (blegh) it doesn't display and you are forced to use either plain text or pure hmtl... Maybe changing the User-agent in your browser someway may solve that???

What are MUD games?

someone's not been reading up on http protocol.
the get command means "send me the goods"

the get command whould be th last command you send.

get a packet sniffer, get it to sniff only outgoing traffic to port 80, then point your browser at a web page...

read the packet data from the first sniffed packet, you can see exactly what http commands firefox or whatever sends.

I have a doubt about it:
when I run Telnet or SSH..
Am I using my processor, I'd say .. does my machine stay busy when I to do something remote ?