telnet-ing to a linux till.

Nope! You need the password. If you don't have it, you can't get on. You will have to contact whoever installed the POS terminal and get it from them.

I wouldn't use telnet to contact the POS unless the POS was within a secure network. Telnet sends everything "in the clear". There is no encryption. User names and login passwords are sent in the clear. So unless you are looking for your POS's to be compromised, DON'T USE TELNET.

Good luck. Without the password you are wasting your time.

Learn ssh. There are several free ssh clients that run very well on Linux. Even set up a very nice ftp/copy interface. ssh is secure. User logins and passwords are sent encrypted.

Why don't you dump the script that you have written so far?

i know the password to the tills but its just trying to get the command to put it in the password field that i'm stuck with. and they are all in a secure network which only we and our isp can see.

telnet is the only way we can connect to them and do what ever it is that we need to do. i think it's quite and old version of linux as out sales software wont run on anything newer and we're waiting for windows to be put on the tills.