[ih] What does TELNET stand for?

Sat Aug 23 11:41:04 PDT 2025

John L,
I was at Ljubljana also - but I am not sure we knew each other then. I was
there for UCLA and my work on graph models of computation.

v

On Sat, Aug 23, 2025 at 2:38 PM John R. Levine via Internet-history <
internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:

> On Sat, 23 Aug 2025, John Day wrote:
> > Just a nit of a typo only because it might confuse younger members of
> this list.
> > Steve meant, the paper for “Spring Joint Computer Conference” not
> Sprint. ;-)
> > When computing graduated from one conference a year to two.  (I know
> hard to believe there were only two a year.)  ;-)
>
> I went to the 1970 SJCC with the RESISTORS.  There was a phone company
> strike that years so everyone else was stuck, but we used an acoustic
> coupler with a payphone in the lobby to call a PDP-8 in Hopewell we used.
>
> I also went to the 1971 IFIP conference in Ljubljana.  In those days there
> was only one international computer conference every three ywars.  I still
> have my copy of the proceedings.  I don't recall anything Arpanet related,
> but the logistics were terrible, meeting rooms in buildings all over town
> with very crowded bus rides between them, so I missed a lot.
>
> R's,
> John
> >>
> >> John, et al,
> >>
> >> This question caught me by surprise.  I was directly involved in the
> design
> >> and development of the initial suite of protocols for the Arpanet.  The
> >> initial suite consisted of the Host-Host protocol, the Telnet protocol,
> and
> >> File Transfer Protocol (FTP).
> >>
> >> An aside: The Host-Host Protocol later became known as the Network
> Control
> >> Protocol (NCP).  The acronym NCP originally meant Network Control
> Program,
> >> and it referred to the software that had to be added to the operating
> >> system to interact with the IMP and make access to the network
> available to
> >> user level processes in the time-shared systems.  Eventually, there was
> no
> >> need for a special term for that software and the term "Host-Host
> Protocol"
> >> was too bland.  People started referring to the protocol as the Network
> >> Control Protocol, and thus the meaning of "NCP" changed.
> >>
> >> Even though I had been actively involved in the developments of those
> >> protocols, and even though I was first author on the 1972 Sprint Joint
> >> Computer Conference paper, the words "Teletype Network" or
> >> "Telecommunications Network" do not ring a bell for me.  A possible
> caveat:
> >> The Network Working Group grew from a handful of representatives from
> the
> >> first four sites in early 1969 to about fifty or so people attending the
> >> Network Working Group meetings in the next two years.  I remember
> realizing
> >> we needed to split our meetings into two parallel groups, one focused on
> >> the Hot-Host protocol and one focused on the application protocols.  I
> >> concentrated primarily on the Host-Host protocol and stepped back from
> the
> >> detailed development of the application protocols.
> >>
> >> The first mention of "Telnet" in the RFC series is in RFC 97, A First
> Cut
> >> at a Proposed Telnet Protocol, by John Melvin and Richard Watson.  They
> >> were at SRI in Doug Engelbart's group, i.e.. the second node on the
> >> Arpanet, and hence an intimate part of the Network Working Group.
> >>
> >> So far as I can recall, "Telnet" or "TELNET"sprang forth as an easy and
> >> natural designation for the remote terminal access protocol that we
> >> envisioned as one of the two initial application protocols.  I never
> >> thought of it as an acronym for a lengthier phrase.  I'm pretty sure we
> >> used the term "Telnet" in our informal NWG meetings.  By the time Melvin
> >> and Watson wrote RFC 97 in February 1971, the term was in common use
> within
> >> the group.
> >>
> >> It's possible they created the word as an acronym of Terminal Network,
> >> Telephone Network, Telecommunications Network, or something similar.
> It's
> >> equally possible they created the word as a nominal but unspecified
> acronym
> >> of one of those phrases.  To do better than I can, one would have to ask
> >> them.  (I think Watson is no longer with us.  I don't know about
> Melvin.)
> >>
> >> In the 1972 paper, I agree with John Levine.  The phrase
> >> "Telecommunications Network" feels to me as a back formation of an
> >> appositive.  It's even possible I wrote that sentence, though I do not
> >> recall doing so.  Haefner, Metcalfe and Postel were the other
> co-authors.
> >> Postel is no longer available.  Metcalfe is, and I don't know about
> Haefner.
> >>
> >> Bottom line: I can't say for sure whether "TELNET" was created as an
> >> acronym or as a free-standing word.  I'm inclined to believe it was the
> >> latter.  In any case, as best I can tell, the 1972 paper is the only
> time
> >> it was associated with "Telecommunications Network."
> >>
> >> Steve
> >>
> >>
> >> On Fri, Aug 22, 2025 at 6:45 PM John Levine via Internet-history <
> >> internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
> >>
> >>> This question came up on another list.
> >>>
> >>> I have seen claims that it's Teletype Network or Telecommunications
> >>> Network, which smells like acronym reverse engineering to me.
> >>>
> >>> Does it stand for anything?  Where did the name come from?
> >>>
> >>> R's,
> >>> John
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>
> Regards,
> John Levine, johnl at taugh.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for
> Dummies",
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