What kind of protocol is TelNet?

By extension, "telnet" also refers to the program which provides the client part of the protocol. TELNET clients have been available on most Unix systems for many years and are available for virtually all platforms. Most network equipment and OSs with a TCP/IP stack support some kind of Telnet service server for their remote configuration (including ones based on Windows NT). However with recent advancements SSH has become more dominant in remote access for Unix-based machines.