In message <009001c0acfe$9a43f730$0200a8c0@defiant>, "Adam Johnson" writes:
>I'm very new to BSD and just set up a NetBSD NAT "box" for my cable
>connection.  I'm trying to learn more about accessing the machine remotely
>but can't find much info on NetBSD's site.  So far, I've tried allowing
>telnetd to boot up in the inetd.conf file, but when trying to log on
>remotely I get the message that "root login refused on this terminal".

Most machines are normally configured so that direct root logins are
permitted only on a limited set of terminals that are known to be
"secure" (eg, the console of the machine, or a serial terminal in a safe
location).  

For everything else you have to log in as a normal user, and then use
"su" or similar (eg, sudo) to become root.  If you haven't created a
normal user for yourself, I suggest you do that first; the NetBSD guide
has details on doing that.  AFAIK telnet will always require that you
login as a normal user first.

>Am I going about this the wrong way?  Is telnet the best way to access this
>machine?  

ssh would be a much better way to log into the machine, as it has better
authentication, and encrypts the traffic so that your password isn't
visible to everyone.  (With some work you can also set it up so that it
uses another form of authentication such as RSA keys so you don't have
to type in a password for each access.)  ssh can be configured to allow
direct root logins into the machine, but personally I disable that
option.

FWIW, I immediately disable telnetd on every machine that I install
(and am grateful that it is disabled by default in NetBSD 1.5).  I
haven't used telnet for anything other than testing network protocols in
several years.

Ewen