One of the historical services available on the Internet stems from the time of interactive computing using terminals connected to a host computer that served many simultaneous users. Using a dumb terminal, you would log into a host computer system on which you had an account with your user identification and password. The TCP/IP protocol suite includes a program called Telnet, which allows you to make a connection to any host that allows Telnet access. If you have an account for that system, you can log in and use the host as if you were a terminal to that host. A typical use would be to use Telnet to log into a host on which you have an E-Mail account. Using your computer as the terminal to this host, you can receive and send E-Mail and the other services offered by that host. Examples are the Alachua Freenet Connection, and the LUIS book reference system offered by the UF Library. A typical command to make a connection to a remote host using Telnet is:
Telnet sleepy.anest.ufl.edu
If the remote host accepts your request for a connection, you can interact with the host as if you have a terminal connection. An example of a Telnet sessions is depicted in the figure below.
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