im in the process of teaching myself how to use telnet
While it is good to know how to use this "tool", but from a security stand point, I wouldn't use this outside your own LAN/WAN. And I would only really use this as a quick test to see that the network connection is working properly all the way through the OSI model.

You should learn how to use ssh or PuTTY.

These applications are a little better than telnet because they provide some username/password and encryption.