Installing Telnet client on Windows Server 2008

If you’re installing Office Communications Server (or anything else, for that matter) on Windows Server 2008, you’ve probably been frustrated that the telnet client is no longer installed by default. Perhaps telnet isn’t the best troubleshooting tool. But, who hasn’t tried “telnet ocspool 5061” to quickly verify that the load balancer is at least doing something?

The typical method to install the telnet client involves starting Server Manager and (after waiting for it to start) choosing to Add Features. Stepping through the following wizard is easy enough, requiring only a few clicks.

A quicker method, though, for simply installing the telnet client is this command line:

   ServerManagerCmd -i Telnet-Client

Note: This should be run from an elevated (“Run as administrator”) command prompt.

Before you complain that telnet should be installed by default, remember that security concerns are at play. This change is for the good. Reducing the number of features installed by default reduces the surface area for attack and minimizes the components that might require patching. Gone are the days when a default Windows Server installation includes a bunch of unneeded stuff.

--Doug

This post has been brought to you by the Microsoft Trustworthy Computing Initiative.