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Before gophers, hypertext, and sophisticated web browsers, telnet was the primary means by which computer users connected their machines with other computers around the world. Telnet is a plain ASCII terminal emulation protocol that is still used to access a variety of information sources, most notably libraries and local BBS's. This report will trace the history and usage of this still popular and widely used protocol and explain where and how it still manages to …

…or tools such as Gopher that "save" end users from having to deal with the command line prompt and the peculiar details of commands like Telnet. While that may be the case, the tendency remains in place for programmers to develop new software by building on the old. Therefore, knowing the underlying command structure of older protocols like telnet and rlogin are likely to remain essential skills for the networking professional in the foreseeable future.