Internet Technologies/Telnet

Wikipedia has related information at Telnet

Telnet is a protocol designed to remotely access computers in a client-server fashion. Telnet is inherently insecure, as the data passed from the client to the server or vice-versa is not encrypted. For connections through insecure networks (such as the Internet), SSH (Secured SHell), should be used so all communications between the client and server are encrypted.

Examples

Test if the HTTP port is open and its service listening

telnet localhost 80

Send an email

telnet localhost 25
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to localhost.localdomain.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 smtp.mydomain.com
mail from:<superman@mydomain.com>
250 2.1.0 <superman@mydomain.com>... Sender ok
rcpt to:<wonderwoman@herdomain.com>
250 2.1.5 <wonderwoman@herdomain.com>... Recipient ok
data
354 Enter mail, end with "." on a line by itself
Let's meet
.
250 2.0.0 n514OvkN019941 Message accepted for delivery
quit
221 2.0.0 smtp.mydomain.com closing connection
Connection closed by foreign host.