Initialising the Telnet options with the client

[J Sock]

Hi,

I am writing a Telnet server in Java and am finding it difficult to handle the initial client (using PuTTY in this case) options:

The Telnet protocol states that first, the client sends the server 3-byte codes beginning with 255 which state the Telnet options. Hence, I first read the bytes sent in using the BufferedReader's read() method (which returns an integer). I then convert the second byte of each 3-byte code to disable the option in the manner stated in this thread. My response is then sent. However, the client doesn't respond back with more options until I send it yet another stream of data. (Its response in my case being: 255 251 36.) It doesn't seem to matter what I send, it will always response with that code.

Why is the client doing this? Is it a bug in PuTTY - not flushing the output stream? Is initialising a Telnet communication a 2 part process? How can I handle this?

Thanks in advance.

[Richard Tookey]

I'm uncomfortable with you using character streams for binary data such as 255 251 36 since character conversion issues may mean you are not actually sending what you think you are. I would expect you to be using byte streams.

P.S. Do you really think that a well tested and universally used product like Putty is likely to have such a fundamental bug?