Technical Tip: How to enable the free Telnet client to connect to FortiGate from Windows OS

[bkarl]

Description	This article describes how to enable a Telnet client without installing Putty or other software to connect to FortiGate.
Scope	Windows, FortiGate.
Solution	Allow administrative access for Telnet on the FortiGate interface. Configure administrative access to interfaces config system interface     edit "<Interface Name>"     set allowaccess telnet     next end On Windows, go to the Control Panel -> Programs and Features, choose the Telnet client, and select the 'Accept option'. Run CMD as administrator account and type: telnet fqdn/ip port To activate Telnet via command prompt CMD type: pkgmgr /iu:"TelnetClient" It will enable the Windows Manager package for Telnet. Once installed, restart the command prompt and try to Telnet again. Note: It is highly discouraged to use telnet. Telnet is unencrypted and the login procedure will for example transfer credentials in clear text. Use SSH instead as an encrypted shell and a user of choice, PuTTY is fairly simple. More information on SSH with FortiGate can be found in this documentation: Public key SSH access