Q. What would cause incoming TELNET connections to be slow and appear to hang when starting -- sometimes waiting over a minute before the username prompt is displayed?

A. This is probably happening because by default the TELNET server attempts to find the host name of the client and uses it when setting the remote port information (ACCPORNAM) for the process. (This shows up when you do a SHOW SYSTEM in the accounting file.) Looking up the host name could take some time especially if there are network problems, problems with name servers, or if DNS is configured improperly.

You can disable the lookup and have the TELNET server use the client IP address for the remote port information by setting bit 8 of the TELNETD_FLAGS logical. Add the following line to your TCPWARE_CONFIGURE.COM to set this.

$ TELNETD_FLAGS == 256

For more information on the TCPWARE_TELNETD_FLAGS logical, refer to the "Telnet - OpenVMS Management" chapter of the TCPware Management Guide.