Well first of all loging in as root over telnet isn't going to happen because telnet won't allow for root connections. Second of all telnet is all in plain text and not encrypted at all. Secure Shell on the other hand will allow for root login unless taken out of the ssh config file. But by default it will allow for root logons its alot safer then telnet because its encrypted at 128 bit (i could be wrong on this one) But i would still highly advise that you login in as root only if you need to else things seemed to get screwed up way to fast!