How Do I Open a Telnet Session From Excel?

Hello All,

I am trying to figure out a way to open a telnet session from within Excel. I would like to be able to click on a particular cell, and have it perform a telnet command (telnet 192.168.***.***) that opens up to the banner page of a switch.

If I could accomplish only that, I would be happy. But if possible, I would also like to have a script automatically input CTRL-Y in order to proceed past the banner page, and open the username and password prompt.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Assuming your IP address/server is in cell A1, you can add this to your Worksheet's code. It doesn't add the CTRL+Y, as SendKeys is often unreliable and other methods get more complex.

Private Sub Worksheet_BeforeDoubleClick(ByVal Target As Range, Cancel As Boolean)
If Not Intersect(Target, Range("A1")) Is Nothing Then
    Cancel = True
    t = Shell("c:\windows\system32\telnet.exe " & Target.Value, vbNormalFocus)
End If
End Sub

As noted in this thread http://www.excelforum.com/excel-gene...xcel-cell.html, you may need to install telnet in Windows 7/8 as it may not be installed by default.

Did you see the linked post about installing Telnet? It is not installed by default in Windows 7 (and possibly 8). If it is installed, find the correct path to telnet.exe and adjust the path in the code to point there.

Well, I can't get it to NOT work on my Win7 PC. No errors whether it's a server name (fully qualified or not) or an IP address.

Only thing I can think of is that you may have forgotten to add a space after telnet.exe in the path. If that space is missing, you'll be sending a command like

c:\windows\system32\telnet.exeSERVERNAME

instead of

c:\windows\system32\telnet.exe SERVERNAME

Unfortunately I don't have a Win8 PC handy to test on my own.

Edit: Just tested by removing the space after the telnet.exe and I get your File not found error 53.

Thanks for your continued help Paul.

I checked the syntax, but unfortunately I still receive the same error.

Here are the steps that I take:
1) Open an excel spreadsheet
2) right click on the sheet tab, and select "view code."
3) paste in the script exactly as seen here:

Private Sub Worksheet_BeforeDoubleClick(ByVal Target As Range, Cancel As Boolean)
    If Not Intersect(Target, Range("A1")) Is Nothing Then
          Cancel = True
    t = Shell("c:\windows\system32\telnet.exe " & Target.Value, vbNormalFocus)
    End If
    End Sub

5) Close the Visual Basic window and return to the spreadsheet
6) Enter the IP Address I'm trying to telnet to, into cell A1
7) Double-click cell A1

Am I missing a step somewhere? Or do I need to add the IP address into the script? Or is there anything else you can think of?

Nothing rings a bell, and without a Win8 PC to test here I can't do much more unfortunately. I know this is not exactly related, but are you using 64-bit Win8? Perhaps when launching telnet via command it launches the 64-bit telnet EXE, but the version in c:\windows\system32\ is the 32-bit version and causing a problem?

http://superuser.com/questions/46339...command-prompt

Hopefully this helps..

Nothing rings a bell, and without a Win8 PC to test here I can't do much more unfortunately. I know this is not exactly related, but are you using 64-bit Win8? Perhaps when launching telnet via command it launches the 64-bit telnet EXE, but the version in c:\windows\system32\ is the 32-bit version and causing a problem?

http://superuser.com/questions/46339...command-prompt

Hopefully this helps..

You probably need to find the path to the 64-bit telnet.exe, as stated in the linked article. Beyond that I can't be much more help since I don't have Win8 or 64-bit machines handy.

I think I figured out an option...

Copy telnet.exe from c:\windows\system32 to c:\windows\syswow64. After doing so I was able to execute the code on my 64-bit PC (Win7) running Office 32-bit. Hopefully that works for you too.

pramoth.u welcome to the forum

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