[ih] What does TELNET stand for?

[Jim Carpenter]

On Sat, Aug 23, 2025 at 9:49 AM Steve Crocker via Internet-history
<internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
> 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.

RFC 97 may be the first mention of the Telnet protocol. However RFC 15
(C. Stephen Carr @ UTAH, 9/25/69) is the first mention of Telnet as a
program. The introduction:

| A set of network primitives has been defined (Network Working Group
| Note 11) for inclusion in the monitor systems of the respective
| HOSTS.  These primitives are at the level of system calls: SPOP's or
| BRS's on the 940; UUO's on the PDP-10.  Presumably these UUO's are
| accessible to all user programs when executing for users whose status
| bits allow network access.
|
| In addition to user program access, a convenient means for direct
| network access from the terminal is desirable.  A sub-system called
| "Telnet" is proposed which is a shell program around the network
| system primitives, allowing a teletype or similar terminal at a
| remote host to function as a teletype at the serving host.

RFCs before 15 just refer to a "teletype like connection".

Jim