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.

Steps

To watch it on Windows XP

1. Make sure you are connected to the internet.
2. Open the Organize Your Start Menu in Windows.
3. Click on 'Run'. (You can also open Run by pressing WinKey + R.)
4. Type cmd.exe, and press OK.
5. 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. It may take a minute to connect, but soon it will play Star Wars Episode IV in ASCII.
7. 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).

To watch it on Windows 7/8 or Vista

1. Make sure you are connected to the internet.
2. 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.
3. Open up the "Start" menu and go to "search".
4. Type in "telnet" and press Enter.
5. In the following window, type "o" (type this without quotes) and press Enter.
6. Now type "towel.blinkenlights.nl" (again, without quotes) and press enter. Note: you can now turn telnet off.

To watch it on a Mac OS

1. Make sure you are connected to the internet.
2. Open your "applications" folder.
3. Locate and open the "utilities" folder.
4. Open the application "terminal".
5. Type in "telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl" (without the quotes) and press Enter. Your text art version of Star Wars Episode IV will now start.

Tips

• Due to the limited nature of Telnet, no sound is played.
• Windows Vista, by default, does not come with the Telnet client pre-installed. To install it, open the control panel, and go to Add & Remove Programs >> Windows Features >> And check the box next to Telnet. Alternatively, you can install a third-party telnet client like Putty.
• One other telnet movie you can watch is "telnet ascii-wm.net 2006". It's blurry, but it's supposed to be the Soccer World Cup.
• You can also use the Telnet client to access BBSes, (Bulletin Board Systems). BBS was the precursor to the modern day internet, and a typical BBS has message boards, chat rooms, games (DOORs)and downloads.
• For some browsers, you can just type in telnet://towel.blinkenlights.nl or telnet://ascii-wm.net:2006 into your address bar or click the link.
• You can also use telnet to access the Both Excuse Server created by Jeff Ballard. It generates excuses based on the "bastard operator from hell".

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

Related Articles

• Create a Custom Windows Command Prompt
• Fix Full Screen Command Prompt
• Use the Command Prompt and Write in Batch Language
• Use Telnet on Mac OS X
• Telnet in Vista
• Set up a Telnet Host on Your Computer

Sources and Citations

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

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