Back at TryHackMe for this post! It has been a while since I’ve been in this room, ‘Network Services’, which is part of the Complete Beginner path. Instead of leaving off where I was before, which was nearing the end of the room, I decided to go back to the other “Tasks” and re-read what I had done as well as look into the answers again for a refresher. As I have learned, a refresher is never a bad thing and can fill in gaps.
In this single room, you will go over important protocols such as SMB, Telnet and FTP. I was and am familiar with these, but THM does a great way of going more in depth than your typical reads. THM deserves the time and attention as it gives you details you would not otherwise get in simpler material.
Key points for Server Message Block(SMB)
Server Message Block, a response-request protocol that connects with TCP/IP. Attackers aim at this because it’s interacts with servers. It can run on ports 139 but usually runs on port 445.
Key points for Telnet
Telnet is an application protocol and runs on port 23. You can execute commands on a remote server if it’s hosting a telnet server. Sounds cool and everything, but it does so in plaintext, which means it’s not encrypted. This means an attacker can easily see what you input when it travels to the Telnet server. Because of this, Telnet has been replaced by SSH(secure shell) which encrypts the plaintext as it travels.
Key points for File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
You guessed it, you transfer files over a network with this! It uses the client-server model and runs over port 21. If you are unfamaliar with client-server, I will link to a YouTube video that explains this down below! I am also going to clip straight from THM room as this goes into great detail(more than I could tell you) about our little protocol that transferred files like no other protocol could.

I will continue the journey in another blog post!
Thank you to PoloMints who created this room -> https://tryhackme.com/r/room/networkservices
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGGDdKZvYpI “Client Server vs Peer to Peer” By: Revise Computer Science
I watched this video earlier today for a school related test