I'm in an Ubuntu terminal, and telnet to a server. Now whenever I type 'up', it turns into ^[[A. Other arrow keys also turn into control characters. Is there a way I can run telnet so it understands my arrow keys? This would be a huge help because I'd like to scroll up in my commands history.
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It's not telnet that needs to understand the escape sequences your keys produce; it's whatever program you're typing them into at the remote end. Looks like your $TERM
environment variable (on the remote system) is not getting set correctly for the terminal you're running telnet in.
It's been a while since I used telnet for logins, but IIRC it doesn't transfer TERM
automatically, so you may have to set it yourself. Or, as Mike C suggests, use ssh instead -- that does transfer TERM
.

hmakholm left over Monica
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Consider also the security implications. Telnet is inherently insecure, so your connection is vulnerable unless you add extra layers of security, such as VPN--and even that will only protect you from attacks from outside your office network. – Mathieu K. Nov 22 '15 at 17:56