Telnet vs ssh?

Question

i have a webserver in my basement without a keyboard, monitor or mouse permanently attached to it. so maintaining it is rather difficult. so i've been looking at setting up telnet or ssh on it (which i should have done from the start) so i can manage it from another machine within my network
now i understand that telnet lacks any type of security, and i'm only using it behind my network anyway. but my concern is if i want to log into it from outside my network through my vpn. i use openvpn, so i'm asking, because i'm not sure the vpn connection is encrypted or not, and if its not, then ssh will be the way to go, otherwise i think telnet is just easier.

Answer 1

.:B:. wrote:If 'minimal' updates mean what I think it means, then you're only making yourself miserable. Partial updates will break the system; it's a rolling release and often updates depend on one another. Doing 'minimal' updates is not the way to go. If you're afraid stuff breaks, pick another distro, or try the Arch Server Project, or at least install an LTS kernel like gazj did.
i didn't mean minimal updates like that, i just meant that i don't update it very often. i do run the lts kernel. i just don't update everything else too often out of the blue like that because its setup and working. i ran into issues with mysql one time when i just went ahead and updated, had trouble getting it going right. so i like to plan my downtime and try to know what to expect. so instead of planning to have it down for 10 minutes, and having that turn into an hour, i can plan for an hour if thats what i know it will take.