How to Watch Movies Using Telnet

This WikiHow will show you how you can use the telnet client to watch an ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Exchange) text art version of Star Wars through command prompt on a Windows OS, or to do the same on a Mac OS using Terminal.

Method 1
Method 1 of 4:

To watch it on Windows XP

  1. Image titled Watch Movies Using Telnet Step 1
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    Make sure you are connected to the internet.
  2. Image titled Watch Movies Using Telnet Step 2
    2
    Open the Start Menu.
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  3. Image titled Watch Movies Using Telnet Step 3
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    Click on 'Run'. (You can also open Run by pressing WinKey + R.)
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    Type cmd.exe, and press OK.
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    In the window that opens up, type in "telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl" without the quotes, and hit enter or in first line enter "o" without quotes and in second line type towel.blinkenlights.nl then hit enter (source computer. Wizard .tk)
  6. Image titled Watch Movies Using Telnet Step 6
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    It may take a minute to connect, but soon it will play Star Wars Episode IV in ASCII.
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    Note: This is not a hidden movie in Windows. You are using a program called telnet and connecting a server called towel.blinkenlights.nl. Once connected, the server plays the movie (an ASCII art animation).
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Method 2
Method 2 of 4:

To watch it on Windows 7/8 or Vista

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    Make sure you are connected to the internet.
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    Go to Control Panel › Programs › Turn Windows Feature On or Off and check both telnet boxes to turn telnet on. On newer versions of Windows, telnet is turned off by default.
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    Open up the "Start" menu and go to "search".
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    Type in "telnet" and press Enter.
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    In the following window, type "o" (type this without quotes) and press Enter.
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    Now type "towel.blinkenlights.nl" (again, without quotes) and press enter. Note: you can now turn telnet off.
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Method 3
Method 3 of 4:

To watch it on a Mac OS

  1. Image titled Watch Movies Using Telnet Step 14
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    Make sure you are connected to the internet.
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    2
    Open your "applications" folder.
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    Locate and open the "utilities" folder.
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    Open the application "terminal".
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    Type in "telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl" (without the quotes) and press Enter. Your text art version of Star Wars Episode IV will now start.
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Method 4
Method 4 of 4:

To watch it on Linux

  1. 1
    Make sure you are connected to the internet.
  2. 2
    Open the application "terminal".
  3. 3
    Type in "telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl" (without the quotes) and press Enter. Your text art version of Star Wars Episode IV will now start.
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Community Q&A

  • Question
    Are there any other C.M.D. movies available?
    Community Answer
    Community Answer
    No. There are other forms of entertainment using Telnet, such as using a Bulletin Board System to play door games.
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Things You'll Need

  • A computer
  • A telnet client, there is one included in most operating systems (for example, Mac, Windows and Linux) that can be accessed through the command prompt and terminal, respectively
  • An Internet connection

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References

  1. http://www.telnet.org/htm/places.htm
  2. telnet://towel.blinkenlights.nl

About This Article

wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 31 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has been viewed 152,185 times.
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Co-authors: 31
Updated: December 29, 2021
Views: 152,185
Categories: Remote Access Services
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