telnet
and after telling you the escape character (usually 
)
telnet will show its prompt
telnet>
Now you can enter telnet subcommands. For a complete list of subcommands and flags for the telnet command consult the appropriate man page. Here are some frequently used subcommands:
quit ends the telnet commandSo the first subcommand will probably be:open establishes a connection to a remote host
close ends that connection
help lists the subcommands with a brief explanation
telnet> open hostname
This connects your terminal or X-window to the specified host and
displays the logon logo for that node.
Then you can log on there and work as normal.
After logging out of the remote host you will get the
telnet>
prompt so that you can open the next host or quit from
the telnet program and resume the local session.
Alternatively you can specify the remote host on the invocation of the telnet program:
telnet hostname
This automatically connects to the remote host and you see immediately the
logon logo.
Logging out of the remote host will now end the telnet program.
You don't get the telnet> prompt and you are back in your local
session.