Telnet rejected connection?

[Jim]

Greetings!

Router: Keenetic Giga (KN-1012) EAEU
System: Linux Mint 22.3

I have been trying to establish a SSH connection to my Keenetic router but I keep getting "Connection Refused".  I found and installed the SSH module and rebooted the router.  Research indicates that I have to issue certain specific commands via the "command line interface", (telnet) to activate it.  The instructions indicate that telnet is enabled by default and that I should open a telnet connection to the IP address of the router - which opens the router's CLI.

Unfortunately, telnet also returns "connection refused".

Every solution I searched for cycles back to needing the CLI to enable/change things, but I have to do something to enable the CLI so that I can change things to enable the CLI to enable things to enable. . . . Etc.

I've installed putty on my system and I've also tried via a Linux terminal window. Neither SSH nor telnet can connect; both return "connection refused".

Update:
Using putty installed on Windows 10, both telnet and SSH also return "connection refused".

What am I missing?

Jim

Edited yesterday at 04:58 PM by JIm
Additional details

[eralde]

5 hours ago, JIm said:

Greetings!

Router: Keenetic Giga (KN-1012) EAEU
System: Linux Mint 22.3

I have been trying to establish a SSH connection to my Keenetic router but I keep getting "Connection Refused".  I found and installed the SSH module and rebooted the router.  Research indicates that I have to issue certain specific commands via the "command line interface", (telnet) to activate it.  The instructions indicate that telnet is enabled by default and that I should open a telnet connection to the IP address of the router - which opens the router's CLI.

Unfortunately, telnet also returns "connection refused".

Every solution I searched for cycles back to needing the CLI to enable/change things, but I have to do something to enable the CLI so that I can change things to enable the CLI to enable things to enable. . . . Etc.

I've installed putty on my system and I've also tried via a Linux terminal window. Neither SSH nor telnet can connect; both return "connection refused".

Update:
Using putty installed on Windows 10, both telnet and SSH also return "connection refused".

What am I missing?

Jim

Hello, Jim

The telnet access from the LAN should be enabled by default. I know this is a dumb question, but is your computer in the local network of your router when you try to connect it to the router? (i.e., is it connected to one of the grey Ethernet ports on the router/to router's Wi-FI)

[Jim]

Of course. 🤪😉

It is connected via an Ethernet cable through a dumb switch.  Neither a hard wired nor WiFi connection will connect.  My wife's computer, (which is directly connected to the router itself via an Ethernet cable), also fails.

I'm sure there's some setting somewhere that I set, (or failed to set), that causes this.

Also. . . . All these devices are "registered".

Edited 8 hours ago by JIm
Clarification

[eralde]

5 hours ago, Jim said:

Of course. 🤪😉

 

Okay, thank you 😅

5 hours ago, Jim said:

Also. . . . All these devices are "registered".

That should not affect anything
 

5 hours ago, Jim said:

I'm sure there's some setting somewhere that I set, (or failed to set), that causes this.

Also. . . . All these devices are "registered".

If you can access the router's web UI, you can check if the telnet port is the default one here: http://my.keenetic.net/administrator

Spoiler

Also, from the web UI you can restart the internal telnet service:

Spoiler

 

 

 

If that does not help, please download the self-test file from your device and attach it here, so we can check it (we will hide the message containing the file since it has some sensitive data in it, so you won't see it, but the moderators will still be able to access it).

[Jim]

Ahhh!

The telnet port was set to "21".  Setting it to 23 fixed the telnet problem.

Onward and Upward!