How to SSH/telnet into Windows command line?

June 18, 2007 9:38 PM

How can I SSH (or telnet) into my Windows machine (2000 and XP) and get a command line?
posted by jkoby to Computers & Internet (16 answers total)

First Hit on Google for SSH for Windows:

OpenSSH For Windows
posted by grandsham at 9:56 PM on June 18, 2007

Cygwin has an SSH server. Normally it will dump you into a bash shell rather than CMD.COM but there might be a way to redirect it.
posted by chairface at 9:56 PM on June 18, 2007

You could always set your bash login script to run cmd.
posted by oaf at 9:59 PM on June 18, 2007

I recommend WinSSHd. Powerful and easy.
posted by likedoomsday at 10:05 PM on June 18, 2007

Lifehacker on setting up OpenSSH via Cygwin. The OpenSSH for Windows package linked above is fairly old, so it's probably better to go with the Cygwin route if you want a free solution (WinSSHd appears to be far more convenient but costs money).
posted by chrominance at 10:45 PM on June 18, 2007

For quick and dirty hackery (you mentioned telnet, so security is probably not #1 on your list here :) ), you can use the hacker's swiss-army knife - netcat!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netcat
posted by mebibyte at 10:51 PM on June 18, 2007

Second vote for WinSSHd, it even does a very nice job of auto-configuring port forwarding for Remote Desktop with its (free) partner SSH client Tunnelier. WinSSHd is one of the best software purchases I've ever made.
posted by tiamat at 11:38 PM on June 18, 2007

Third vote for WinSSHD.
posted by southof40 at 1:03 AM on June 19, 2007

In terms of the Telnet side of things, you could use the Georgia Softworks Telnet Server. It should give you a full Command Prompt over Telnet. Unfortunately, it costs $125.00
posted by seanyboy at 2:18 AM on June 19, 2007

There's always the Windows 2000 telnet server too.
posted by mikeh at 4:59 AM on June 19, 2007

Response by poster: Does XP have a builtin telnet server, too?
posted by jkoby at 7:49 AM on June 19, 2007

A quick google turns up freeSSHd.
posted by jjb at 10:05 AM on June 19, 2007

I'm often accessing my email via the command line. It's easy to ssh on a Mac. Its terminal program will do both telnet and ssh. However, when I'm on the road, I'd love to be able to ssh to my email account with some default (that is, already installed) app on a Windows machine as I usually can't install a new program (example: I'm at a conference and am using a Windows machine to access my email). Windows telnet doesn't seem to do ssh.

Is there no other way than to install a third party app?
posted by Taken Outtacontext at 12:32 PM on June 19, 2007

Cygwin will let you install the sshd server as a service under Windows, so it'll be available whenever you boot up your box. You'll have a bash shell when you contact that box remotely.

I stay clear of telnet, for obvious security reasons.
posted by wheat at 1:42 PM on June 19, 2007

@takenouttacontext: Portable PuTTY will do if you've got a USB drive.
posted by boaz at 1:43 PM on June 19, 2007

Thanks boaz!
posted by Taken Outtacontext at 11:37 AM on June 20, 2007