Making Telnet Client available on Windows

Telnet is a handy utility that allows a TCP/IP connection to be made to a host/port. Unlike ping or tracert which simply detect if a hosts exists, telnet allows a connection to be opened to a specific port. This is handy in verifying that there is no firewall blocking an application running on a remote server (e.g. a proxy server -- Setting up a proxy server with TinyProxy on Ubuntu).

Telnet is a feature of Windows operating systems (the good news). The bad news is that it is not installed as part of a standard windows installation. This posting demonstrates how to add the Telnet Client feature of a Windows host.

The first step in add Telnet to a Windows host is to display control panel. To find control panel search on "Control Panel" from the desktop:

Click on the "Control Panel" above which displays the following:

To add a Telnet Client to Windows click on "Uninstall a program" (lower left corder of Control Panel above). If this seem counter intuitive remember that to shutdown previous versions of Windows you had to click on the Start button.

Click on "Uninstall a program" displays the following, the "Programs and Features" screen:

The upper left corner of the the "Programs and Features" screen contains a link entitled, "Turn Windows features on and off." Click on this link:

Clicking on the "Turn Windows features on and off" link displays the "Windows Features" dialog shown below:

Scrolling down the "Windows Features" screen will eventually display the "Telnet Client" checkbox. If this box is unchecked then the Telnet Client is not installed. To install the Telnet Client (when it is not currently installed) click on the corresponding checkbox (see below):

With the the "Telnet Client" checkbox checked, click on "OK" to install the feature. Clicking on "OK" displays the following:

The screen above is displayed while the "Telnet Client" feature is being installed. Once the screen above completes, the screen below is displayed:

The previous screen indicates that the "Telnet Client" features is insallted.