Which to use; Telnet or SSH for logging into Bulliten Board Systems (BBS's)?

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punchy71

New Member
Greetings,
I've been watching people on YouTube Telnet into various different BBS's using Vintage hardware and software, however, I read in a current, modern book recently that SSH is trying to replace Telnet because Telnet is unsecure and SSH is secure. Some current books I've read in the book store make it sound like SSH has already supplanted Telnet and yet other books make it sound like it has not.
Most users these days seem to log into BBS's via the internet using Telnet rather than using dial-up as a method. Is using dial-up any more or less secure than using Telnet on the internet.... or even SSH?
The current book I was reading said that most IT professionals today wouldn't dream of using Telnet on the internet in today's world since it is unsecured. My question is; is it possible to "SSH" into BBS's rather than Telneting into them and if so how is it done? Are BBS's designed to be SSH'd into in addition to being Telnet'd into? And also; why isn't everyone "SSHing" into BBS's rather than persisting in using Telnet?

Thanks
 
SSH is more secure because it uses encryption whereas everything is transmitted in clear text with telnet.

I think the main reason why telnet is mostly used is because it is more readily available. Open a command prompt and type in telnet, you will get a telnet prompt. As far as I know, there is no ssh client that comes with Windows but you can download and install such a client. One that I have used is known as PuTTY.
 
I'm currently running Linux Mint on a laptop, so I guess the question I should ask next is; do you know of a Linux equivalent to PuTTY? I like free software and open-source software best. =)
 
SSH or Telnet depends on what service is running on the remote end. Usually if you want to Telnet to something over the WAN you'd also want to use a secure/encrypted mechanism like a VPN first. Then, if you telnet over the VPN your session is still encrypted, at least between VPN endpoints.

You can do a test of this yourself by opening a Wireshark capture and telnetting somewhere. You'll see the username and password as clear text as the packet leaves your PC, which is also seen in clear text by every other hop from you to the server.

If you're using Linux you can just use the native ssh client from CLI.
 
How do I find out which native SSH client is on my Linux OS? Then how do I run it and try to SSH into some BBS (as a test)?
 
punchy71 said:
How do I find out which native SSH client is on my Linux OS? Then how do I run it and try to SSH into some BBS (as a test)?
Click to expand...

Just use the 'ssh' command in the shell. Some minimal installations need the client installed although it's bundled with most distros by default. You can also do a ssh -V to get some details:
[beers@fs ~]$ sudo yum search ssh-client | grep SSH
openssh-clients.x86_64 : An open source SSH client applications

[beers@fs ~]$ ssh -V
OpenSSH_5.3p1, OpenSSL 1.0.1e-fips 11 Feb 2013
Click to expand...

Here's a basic example:
[beers@fs ~]$ ssh 172.31.255.5
[email protected]'s password:
Last login: Wed Jul 9 15:33:15 2014 from 10.1.1.208
[beers@dmz-proxy ~]$
Click to expand...
 
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