Use PuTTY for a Better Windows 7 Telnet and SSH
Many Internet users these days are signing up at sites like Dreamhost, HostGator, and similar companies for Web hosting accounts for their blogs.
These Web hosts usually provide access to user accounts in two ways: through a graphical user interface (or Control Panel), and through a Unix command-line shell account.
It used to be that you could use the Telnet application on Windows to log in to a Unix shell on a web host. But if you press WIN+R and typing in telnet to the Run command box on Windows 7, you may be in for a shock: Windows no longer includes a Telnet client by default.
To enable it, you have to open the Programs and Features control panel, click Turn Windows features on and off, and check Telnet client.
After selecting this option and pressing OK, you can bring
up the Windows Telnet client.
Not very impressive, huh? The Telnet client is old, and
unimproved for Windows 7. What’s more, many Web hosting
companies don’t even support it! Sites such as HostGator
insist that you use SSH (Secure SHell) access instead, which
is much safer than Telnet.
Never to fear: others have picked up Microsoft’s slack. PuTTY is a great substitute for the Windows Telnet client. It not only supports both Telnet and SSH, it comes with a better interface to boot.
PuTTY can be downloaded as a raw Windows Executable file (.exe). You can put the .exe anywhere on your system, but my favorite location is C:\Windows\system32. Once PuTTY is in the system directory, you can open it by clicking WIN+R and typing putty into the Run dialog.
PuTTY defaults to SSH, so if your host supports a secure
shell, you can type the address into the Host name box,
click Open, and login to your Web hosting account.
I guarantee you’ll find the PuTTY terminal window superior to the Windows Telnet interface.
(A final note to hosting account owners on Windows 7: don’t use the native Windows FTP client, either! Pressing WIN+R and typing ftp will get you access to the command line FTP interface on Windows, but you’ll be much happier if you download the free, GUI-based Filezilla.)