telnet 'connection reset by peer'

[Eddie Corns]

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).

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.

HTH,
Eddie