Simplicity

• Developed in 1969, telnet was made to facilitate a bidirectional terminal interface so that users of one machine could interact with a remote console. Telnet's stripped down, simple interface allows users to interact with any number of services other than a remote terminal interface, including console interaction with mail services and other essential protocols. This makes it an excellent tool for learning how services interact in the background when used by applications. However, it should be noted that telnet does not establish a true, raw TCP session when connecting to a remote service.
  
  

Name Resolution

• The Microsoft Windows telnet client can connect to remote servers using the \\ServerName delineation instead of a domain name or IP address. This can be useful on Microsoft Windows-based networks since you may remember a machine's host name, but not the actual IP address.
  
  

Abbreviation

• Telnet commands can be abbreviated to the nearest possible command using the Microsoft Windows telnet client. For instance, the open command can be shortened to "o" and the client will still open a connection. The same goes for close and quit, which can be abbreviated to "c" and "q" from the console.
  
  

Terminal Options

• Interaction with the remote terminal can be made specific through a number of parameters. Terminal types can be set to ansi, vt100, vt52 or vtnt. Logging can be turned on or off, the backspace character can be changed and the new line mode can be changed to work with different types of systems.
  
  

Remote Administration

• The tlntadmin command, included with the Microsoft Windows telnet client, allows you to manage remote telnet servers. Besides the start and stop parameters, tlntadmin can be used to list, terminate and send messages to other running telnet sessions. In addition, tlntadmin can be used to change the server configuration with the "config" parameter.