I got this the other day while using IE7

Windows no longer recognizes TELNET?

Windows has the following information about this Protocol. This page will help you find software needed to open your file.



Protocol Type: telnet

Description: UnKnown

Windows does not recognize this Protocol.

You can search the following Web sites for related software and information:
FILExt | UK Technical Support | Download.com | MSN | Shareware.com

Microsoft, in their infinite wisdom, seems to have pulled telnet support from IE7. I am guessing this is for security purposes. Microsoft has a stellar reputation for security in their products.

               / Promethius / Enigma / Wolfen /

"A man who has no skills can be taught, a man who has no honor has nothing."

Yes, IE7 no longer recognizes the telnet protocol URL. It also stopped, some time ago, recognizing the usernameassword@server.com format too. Quite a few things that IE mis-handles (like CSS, laff).

[Insert anti-MS rant here.]

Yes telnet protocol is from the stoneages and has massive secruity issues with it, and is really no longer used except for bbs's and old school games like TW. I am willing to bet that Vista will also have issues with telnet running through firefox or other program. Which is why I wished TW used a different protocol.

AFAIK telnet is secure behind a (non mickeysoft) firewall. I'd be very interested if you would share any information that you have to the contrary.

(rant)
Telnet is plenty secure if the end systems are secure. Throw in a tunneling proxy of some sort, ala VPN or whatever, and the whole thing is prefectly secure as long as the users are smart about it.

The problem is most systems used to ship (used to) w/ a telnet shell as the default, port being open to everyone. Today people use secure shell and better authentication and password validation schemes which makes it much tougher to mess with.

Today the telnet protocol represents only a tiny security issue. There is simply no way to send a file or other executable information over an outgoing telnet.exe connection.

Compare this to the hundreds of overflow vulnies and the sheer stupidity of the mass of computer users that constantly fall for the same dumb phishing attacks... and the real weaknesses in security become obvious.
(/rant)

Amen Sing!

Again, most systems are as secure as their users.

Its still not very secure, yes their are things that u can do as an end user or server to increase your security with the telnet protocol, but the certain items are still not secure. Then again, for a game like TW you don't need encryption on the information passed between. But that main point I was making is that ITS NO LONGER USED. What I mean is that as the majority I would say in the over 90% of people and companies do not use it anymore. With that in mind, why would you need to put it in IE? its a waste. Personnaly becuase I am one of the less the 10% of computer users that do use it, I wish they would support it.

(more rant)
Telnet as a protocol, and at some points as an application, is still quite useful. Some routers accept nothing else. I routinely use telnet as a debugging app.

Telnet is widely used on the network admin side of things. And while MS doesn't exactly service this niche anymore, it's not a wise idea to remove it from the browser. It reduces the already limited usefulness of IE. This is why linux is growing in popularity, geeky net admins make recommendations to the higher-ups about which systems to use... and they aren't recomending MS as much as they used to.

The reason it should stay there is because...

1: It takes next to no resources to go "oh, it's a telnet://, ok, pass it to the telnet handler"

2: It adds no security to the browser at all

3: Why remove any useful feature of a browser??

Remember that MS bent over backwards to add stuff like tabbed windows to this new version. Well guess what, back when Opera came out only 1% of the people out there used tabbed browsers. But it was a dang useful feature so they worked to add it. While telnet is unlikely to see that sort of growth it's still useful.

DOS 2.0 became popular because of the routines added that simplified programming. MS continues to forget it's most influential market and are paying the price for it. A good example is live.com's search engine. Google owns the PPC market, in order to get people subscribed to MSN's live.com search they are giving people a $200 credit on their account just for starting a campaign. It's taking active bribery to get back to the top.

My point is... the excuse that MS uses to "remove" functionality is nothing but a red herring. It's "hey, we want you to see the web we want you to see, not the way you want to." MS has been doing this a lot lately, ever since Ballmer took over full time. Vista is a prime example of this and why I will never be upgrading to that OS. I do not need big brother watching my every move and requiring that I "validate" my copy of an OS... I won't be treated like a criminal just because I own a computer.

They continue to limit and shape the features they think are important instead of simply enabling end users to make that determination for themselves. I contend this is a bad business move and makes them vulnerable, I also contend that it's a very bad attitude to take with consumers... who are notoriously fickle and tend to take things personal.
(/more rant)

Also to add to your rant Sing, I don't like MS controlling how we use the O/S we buy either, if you have more than one computer you have to buy more than one O/S according to MS, which I think is really bad for them, because most people can't afford the price of having to pay for multiple O/S's, especially if you have a desktop and a laptop and you want your XP Pro on both, and we all know how much the cost of the XP Pro can be, also look at their office program, the same thing there as well, they want you to buy more than one if you own more than one computer. Talk about Big Brother watching you, MS will be running the world soon, if they keep on dictating what we can do with software we buy.

Sorry wasn't going to reply to any forums while home getting a shower, but had to add to this one. Dad is worse.

Worse? My prayers w/ you and your family, V.

Well Gates has my vote for President...