telnet 'connection reset by peer'

[Donnal Walter]

Eddie Corns wrote:
> Donnal Walter <donnal at donnal.net> writes:
> 
> 
>>Eddie Corns wrote:
> 
> 
>>>Donnal Walter <donnal at donnal.net> writes:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>On Windows XP I am able to connect to a remote telnet server from the 
>>>>command prompt using:
>>>
>>>
>>>>telnet nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn 23
>>>
>>>
>>>>where nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn is the IP address of the host. But using 
>>>>telnetlib, this code returns the traceback that follows:
>>>
>>>
>>>>import telnetlib
>>>>host = 'nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn'
>>>>tn = telnetlib.Telnet(host, 23)
>>>>tn.read_until("Enter device name?")
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>Traceback (most recent call last):
>>>> File "C:\Python23\Lib\site-packages\mindwrapper\test\telnet.py", line 
>>>>4, in ?
>>>>   tn.read_until("Enter device name?")
>>>> File "C:\Python23\lib\telnetlib.py", line 316, in read_until
>>>>   self.fill_rawq()
>>>> File "C:\Python23\lib\telnetlib.py", line 521, in fill_rawq
>>>>   buf = self.sock.recv(50)
>>>>socket.error: (10054, 'Connection reset by peer')
>>>
>>>
>>>>Is there some parameter that I need to set in order to connect using the 
>>>>telnetlib client? Thanks.
>>>
>>>
>>>No, that should work, to a reasonably conforming telnet server.  Try doing
>>>tn.set_debuglevel(2) before the read_until() to see what's coming back.
> 
> 
>>Telnet(nnn.nn.nnn.nnn,23): recv 
>>'\xff\xfb\x03\xff\xfd\x03\xff\xfb\x01\xff\xfd\x1
>>7\xff\xfb\x00\xff\xfd\x00'
>>Telnet(nnn.nn.nnn.nnn,23): IAC WILL 3
>>Telnet(nnn.nn.nnn.nnn,23): IAC DO 3
>>Telnet(nnn.nn.nnn.nnn,23): IAC WILL 1
>>Telnet(nnn.nn.nnn.nnn,23): IAC DO 23
>>Telnet(nnn.nn.nnn.nnn,23): IAC WILL 0
>>Telnet(nnn.nn.nnn.nnn,23): IAC DO 0
>>Traceback (most recent call last):
>>  File "C:\Python23\Lib\site-packages\mindwrapper\test\telnet.py", line 
>>5, in ?
>>    tn.read_until("Enter device name?")
>>  File "C:\Python23\lib\telnetlib.py", line 316, in read_until
>>    self.fill_rawq()
>>  File "C:\Python23\lib\telnetlib.py", line 521, in fill_rawq
>>    buf = self.sock.recv(50)
>>socket.error: (10054, 'Connection reset by peer')
> 
> 
>>Thank you for the suggestion. Can you help me interpret the feedback?
> 
> 
> The IACs are commands embedded in the data stream.  This page:
> http://www.scit.wlv.ac.uk/~jphb/comms/telnet.html looks like a decent overview
> of how telnet works.  The purpose here is to negotiate what the capabilities
> of the telnet session (eg echo).  Looking at the code in telnetlib, it seems
> to always send back DONT or WONT for every option (ie refuses to support or
> use any option requested).  It's possible the server is deciding that on this
> basis it cannot proceed.  There doesn't seem to be a single place where all
> the telnet options are described so I don't know what 0,1,3,23 actually are.
> This page might help: http://home.swipnet.se/cfmd/rfc/dir/telnet.html
> You might try using the tn.set_option_negotiation_callback() method to send
> your own negotiation messages back if you think that what it is asking for is
> harmless (you could snoop on your windows session, eg with ethereal, to see
> what windows is sending back).

Thank you. Dealing with telnet at this low level is all new to me, so 
the urls and pointers were helpful. In particular, I downloaded ethereal 
(also new to me) and filtered the packets by ip address. This way I 
found that 0 is 'binary transmission', 1 is 'echo', 3 is 'suppress go 
ahead' and 23 is 'send location' (plus I learned how to send location).

> It seems a bit drastic to behave this way but I suppose it depends on what the
> server is trying to do.  I wouldn't rule out it being a completely different
> problem but nothing springs to mind.  It may be easier to experiment with
> options using a raw socket, copy the code in telnetlib.

I still have not decided how I am going to tackle this. My first attempt 
is likely to be an option_negotiation_callback function as you suggested 
above. In any case, your suggestions have been most helpful. Thanks, again.

Donnal Walter