Enable Telnet on Windows Server 2003

by Daniel Petri - January 8, 2009
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Windows Server 2003 has the Telnet disabled by default (and so good that it does!)

To have the Telnet service running on Windows Server 2003 follow the next steps:

1. Go to the Services applet in Administrative Tools (or click Start, then Run, and type "services.msc" (without quotes) and click OK).
2. Find the "Telnet" service, right-click and select Properties, select "Automatic" instead of "Disabled" in the startup type box.

3. Click Apply.
4. Right-click the "Telnet" service and select Start.

5. Click OK.

You can also modify start state and start it from a Command Prompt console by using the following command:

sc config TlntSvr start= auto

and 

sc start TlntSvr

or

net start TlntSvr

Configuration for Pre-W2K/XP/2003 Clients:

The Telnet server requires NTLM authentication by default. To deactivate this and use only password authentication, use the tlntadmn command:

tlntadmn config sec=-NTLM

Also, switching to streams mode may make display easier for Unix/Linux clients. Do this with the following command:

tlntadmn config mode=stream