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One way to quickly test the first-order functionality of a web server is to use the application layer tool Telnet, e.g. How to send an HTTP request using Telnet.

This is the usage I am most familiar with, but today I learned there is such a thing as a Telnet server: https://askubuntu.com/questions/668725/how-can-the-telnet-service-on-ubuntu-server-14-04-lts-be-enabled, which listens on the well-known port 23 and can be used (though not usually, due to its lack of security) as a remote shell.

I am trying to understand if a Telnet server is necessary if I use it to connect to an HTTP server on port 80, e.g.,
telnet 192.168.0.5 80

Does the Telnet client first connect to the telnet server on port 23, then somehow the server's Telnet process then establish a connection to port 80 on localhost? Or does the client directly connect to the HTTP server (or some other TCP/IP server, for that matter) on 80, without need the Telnet server to be present at all?

I could not immediately find a piece of Telnet documentation that explains how Telnet works in this regard; their scarcity might be attributed to Telnet's lack of security...

flow2k
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  • no it should not use the telnet server, it connects directly to the host/port mentioned, the telnet server is needed if you want to use telnet as a remote shell (AFAIK) like login, then **dir**, then execute other ms-dos commands or run other applications and configuration that can be done through a regular **cmd** – Yazan May 14 '18 at 05:42

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