Hey Joacim!

 JM> Anyone got some advice to give?

Check this out for a very nice simple comparison between the two;

  http://www.differencebetween.net/.../difference-between-telnet-and-ssh/

After reading this it should become obvious why your strategy didn't work
although there is a bit nore to it but the above is all you really need to
know.

openssh is probably what you want.  I am sure there exists a howto for your
distribution in setting it up.  Also ssh is preferred over telnet especially
when connecting over the internet.

Life is good,
Maurice

... Don't cry for me I have vi.
--- GNU bash, version 4.4.0(1)-rc1 (x86_64-atom-linux-gnu)