By Brian Leibowitz
One of the few internet applications that has remained relatively unchanged while being ported to graphical environments is Telnet. The reason for this is that Telnet is an inherently character-based application. For example, one can use Telnet to connect to ColumbiaNet or to your CUNIX account. There are dozens of Telnet programs available now for Windows and Mac, most of which are comparable. A popular program for Windows is Trumpet Telnet Version 0.07. This program utilizes a blue background with white text and tends to handle extended screen writing commands. For example, many Telnet programs for Windows do not handle the highlight bars in the email program PINE correctly and the display gets garbled. In some cases this can be fixed, but it is easiest just to stick with Trumpet Telnet.
Despite the lack of innovation in graphical Telnet applications, there are still good reasons for using them. One is the task switching capabilities of most graphical environments. One can connect to his/her CUNIX account via Telnet and do word processing at the same time, switching back and forth with the touch of a button. This can be useful when running UNIX programs that take several minutes to complete. UNIX allows one to multitask and run other UNIX programs at the same time, but now one can run other programs on his own machine at the same time as well. Also, multiple Telnet sessions may run simultaneously.
Telnet programs for Windows and Macintosh users with ethernet connections are available at various sites on the internet.