SSL/TLS in Python using STARTTLS and ssl/ssltelnet and telnetlib

[Grant Edwards]

On 2019-11-07, Jon Ribbens via Python-list <python-list at python.org> wrote:
> On 2019-11-07, Veek M <veek at dont-use-this.com> wrote:
>> Could someone suggest some introductory reading material that will allow 
>> me to use 'telnetlib' with 'ssl' or 'ssltelnet'. 
>> (currently using Pan since Knode is dropped on Debian)
>>
>> I'm trying to write something that will download the NNTP headers
>> over TLS.
>
> As someone else has pointed out, nntplib would be the obvious choice
> for this. But even if you don't want to use that, you absolutely
> should not be using telnetlib. NNTP is not Telnet and there is no
> connection between the two protocols. (Don't get misled by the common
> practice of using the command-line telnet client as a convenient way
> for connecting to line-based TCP services for testing purposes.)

IIRC, the reason that you could test stuff like NNTP servers using the
old Unix telnet client is because that client defaults to disabling
all of the actual TELNET protocol and handshaking support when
connected to a port other than 23.

-- 
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