Enabling telnet access for OS X

This is just a little tip that may be useful in an unlikely future:

Although OS X allows remote login through SSH (OpenSSH), Telnet and other protocols were discarded due their poor security (or their lack of security at all). However, you may have a specific need for a Telnet server for OS X (let’s say, for educational purposes).

Apple gives a little help in its official support page. Basically, you only need to edit /etc/inetd.conf. However, in 10.2 inetd was deprecated and replaced by xinetd, so there is no inetd.conf file to edit anymore. The solution is quite easy yet not documented, just open the Terminal and type

sudo service telnet start

Type your administrator password when prompted and voilà, that’s it.