Re: Beware - improper context usage can be considered criminal activity!

[gopher]

Sadly, i can see something like this happening at my school. i almost faced a suspension for telnetting to my linux box at home. the offense? i knew how to use telnet. nothing more then that. it wasnt the sys-admins that cared i was using telnet, it was the principals. it seems to me like the people who know the technology should deem punishments appropriate in such cases. id hate to see what a scalar error would cost me.

Mr. Zoothornrollo, hit that long lunar note, and let it float.

[tilly]

Rather than telnet, you should use ssh. If you need to connect from Windows, you can always use the putty client.

[dws]

If his school was indeed freaked over his using telnet, just think how they'd react to ssh! Bomb-sniffing dogs are well within the range of possibilities, given how schools have been reacting of late.

SSH is a Very Good Thing, but perhaps not the best of advice in this particular case.

[tilly]

My concern is over his home machine being cracked, not the school administrators. If they want to be idiots, they will be idiots no matter what he does.

UPDATE
There is some truth to what dws says, far too many school officials these days seem to be petty tyrants and really don't like dealing with kids who can show them up. But still if you are connecting to your machine over the net, there are good reasons to use ssh rather than telnet.