>>> "Wilson, Linda" <[log in to unmask]> 03/11 5:05 PM >>>
>Hi Museum-L-ers and ISEN-ASTC-ers
>I've been going through a tutorial on internet (Patrick Crispen's Internet
>Roadmap) and I'm up to Lesson 12, TelNet.  Our MIS folks tell me that portal
>has been closed because it can be used by nasty people to mess up our
>network. But if I think I need it there are ways to provide access safely.

Sounds like you have extremely lazy and ill informed MIS people to me. I believe that far more damage can come from FTP access, but I am not positive (and there are many ways to overcome all these problems - a good systems person can easily overcome them). 

Telnet is used to connect to other computers - they can be across the country, globe, or just the room. It allows access from any type of computer to anyother without causing large problems in communication (in grad school I used VAX systems and UNIX systems. They were connected in that we could remotely login to one from the other, but that often caused more problems with the incompatible keyboards (e.g., "backspace" and "delete" had different uses on the machines) and a connect via "rlogin" caused problems whereas the didn't occur via "telnet"). I currently use telnet to connect to campus computers two miles away because I cannot get there in person too often. I also use them to connect to different library catalog computers. This is extremely useful. Some libraries have their catalogs available on a web page although you can also go through telnet. In my experience, the telnet works much faster than the web page (both send the data over the internet, but the web based catalog must go through one or more extra computers and transformations). Another use is when I am away I can still easily read my e-mail from any computer without much hassle. If you often have visitors (not the the kind who pays and looks at the exhibits, but people who come to do some research or other work), they might benefit from telnet to connect to their home institution computers.

                                        -angela
Angela Putney, Ph.D.
Physics Management Fellow
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse
College Park, MD 20740

Phone: 301-209-3135
Fax:      301-209-3133
E-mail: [log in to unmask]