How to Install Telnet Command on CentOS / Redhat 6/7/8

In this article I will explain how to install telnet command on CentOS or Redhat. Telnet is most common frequently used command by the system administrator or network administrator or a program developers. Anyone can use this command to check the connection or open ports on particular host computer.

Telnet is a network protocol used in local network or internet to provide text-oriented interactive bidirectional communication facility using terminal connection.

Telnet command is not install by default with minimum installation in Linux Distribution.

There are two different package for telnet which are telnet client and telnet server package. If we run “yum install telnet” it will only install the client program.

In this article I will show you how to install telnet client on CentOS or Redhat.

Install Telnet Command on CentOS /Redhat 6/7/8

Follow this below command to check telnet command is installed or not :

$ telnet localhost 22

You will get the output like below if the telnet client command not installed on Linux machine.

$ telnet localhost 80
-bash: telnet: command not found

You can also verify telnet command using which command:

$ which telnet
/usr/bin/which: no telnet in (/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/root/bin)

We run these two command to check the telnet command install or not. Now run this below command to install  if not installed.

$ sudo yum install telnet -y

To install telnet root level privilege is required, that’s why I am using sudo command to install it.

Once Installed run this below command to check it, you will get some output like below:

$ telnet localhost 22
Trying ::1...
Connected to localhost.
Escape character is '^]'.

or

$ which telnet
/usr/bin/telnet

That’s all.

FAQs

What is Telnet used for?

Telnet is a network protocol used in local network or internet to provide text-oriented interactive bidirectional communication facility using terminal connection. It is used to access remote computer over TCP/IP network like internet.

How can I run Telnet command?

To run telnet command, first find out the IP address or Port of the server. Then run this command : telnet {IP_Address} {Port} for example: telnet 192.168.0.50 22 .

Is telnet secure?

It is inherently insecure. Credential given by the telnet is not encrypted that’s why it is vulnerable to identity theft but users can establish Secure Shell Connection to prevent this type of intrusion.

How can I telnet to an IP Address?

To telnet to an IP, open command prompt and type this command : telnet {IP_Address} {Port} and press enter. If you get black screen it means port is open and test is success. If you get connecting.. message or an error it means something is blocking that port.