is it possible to authenticate telnet automatically?
===

When using [telnetlib][1] I noticed some interesting variables:

    AUTHENTICATION = chr(37) # Authenticate
    XAUTH = chr(41) # XAUTH
    PRAGMA_LOGON = chr(138) # TELOPT PRAGMA LOGON
    SSPI_LOGON = chr(139) # TELOPT SSPI LOGON

Also, [this page][2] lists some RFCs which describe `AUTHENTICATION` option in detail. 

If I understand correctly, if a telnet server supports authentication I should be receiving `IAC DO AUTHENTICATION` when connecting to it. However, when trying to connect to *telnetd* on a Linux machine I do not receive this option and so I can't send `IAC WILL AUTHENTICATION`.

Is my understandng correct? Is there a way I can ask the server to perform authentication? Is it even possible to authenticate telnet session automatically? (without listening to "Login:", "Username:", "Password:" and similar prompts)


  [1]: http://docs.python.org/library/telnetlib.html
  [2]: http://pcmicro.com/netfoss/telnet.html