What is Telnet Access?

They have: 71 posts

Joined: Sep 2002

Hello everybody,

I have a really important question for you all. First of all, before asking my question, my brothers and I are going to be starting a website design business very soon (we have already designed many websites and are very experienced with website design). With this said, there is still much to learn about the Internet and website design.

I've heard about a thing called "Telnet access" and I have no idea what it is. We are using a hosting company called ipowerWeb ( http://www.ipowerweb.com ) to host our network of websites. We have a PHPBB forum on our hosting company and we use iPowerWeb's control panel to create the database for our forum. So, if I ran into a situation where a hosting company did not provide a control panel like iPowerWeb does, will I need to know about Telnet access?

What is TelNet access? What is it used for and do I need to know about it since I am going into the web design business?

By the way, I went to iPowerWeb's FAQ and Knowledge Base section and I ran into this regarding TelNet Access - and this is what struck my curiosity:

Q. Do you offer SSH or Telnet Access?

A Unfortunately due to security reasons and also to assure the security for all of our customers we do not provide Telnet or SSH access to the server.

However, we have designed a comprehesive control panel that will allow you to mange your account. With our control panel you will have total control over your Web hosting account. You will be able to manage applications, add FTP and email accounts, manage your files, manage email via a Web-based email client, view stats with a graphical statistic feature, manage your MySQL database with a PHP based MySQL administration tool, and much more

I really appreciate all of your help and thanks in advance!
Robby Laughing out loud

nike_guy_man's picture

They have: 840 posts

Joined: Sep 2000

Telnet will give you a command line in a *nix OS
If you are going to be running cronjobs or using the MySQL command line (not phpMyAdmin or something like it) then you need Telnet or SSH access
Hope this has helped!

Laughing out loud

Megan's picture

She has: 11,421 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

nike_guy_man wrote: Telnet will give you a command line in a *nix OS
If you are going to be running cronjobs or using the MySQL command line (not phpMyAdmin or something like it) then you need Telnet or SSH access
Hope this has helped!

What are cronjobs?

They have: 447 posts

Joined: Oct 1999

telnet and ssh provide shell access to a remote server. ssh (secure shell) is encrypted, while telnet is not, which is why you would never want to access root or a privileged user through telnet.

He has: 1,016 posts

Joined: May 2002

If you have a good control panel, there is no need for Telnet/SSH access. For same reasons mentioned above, we don't give shell access to any customers.

They have: 5 posts

Joined: Jul 2004

If you will keep using shared servers, %99.9 of hosting out there provide you a full-customizable control panel. I suggest you to keep using iPowerWEB, especially when I have seen their new cpanel, man it's way too proffessional!
Telnet and SSH are usually used and provided for dedicated server which can let you control over you server as it was in your home, some features may require you to use telnet, especially in ipowerweb's dedicated servers or servers that uses PLESK in general. You may face some problems that may require you to use telnet.

They have: 5,633 posts

Joined: Jan 1970

I had a very bad experience with Ipowerweb. It was for a dedicated server. They deleted all my files by mistake and gave the server to someone else. I complained and now after 5 days they did not answer me yet. They did not backup my files (only 1 Giga but very important) which is the minumum they could do. Ipowerweb is the worse host company I ever met.

He has: 1,380 posts

Joined: Feb 2002

Cronjobs are repeated little pieces of code that are set up by the server-admin or webmaster to be run at specific times of day (for example, grab the weather and export it to an XML file every hour so you don't bog down the service)

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