Cisco IOS® Software only allows a limited number of Telnet sessions. The router could already be at its capacity for Telnet sessions or could not be configured to accept any Telnet sessions.
Resolution
To resolve this issue, perform these steps:
Establish a console session.
Issue the command. This verifies whether the maximum number of VTY lines are already in use, as shown in this example:
The VTY lines with asterisks are in use. Two VTY lines are in use, and three others are available.
Disconnect an existing Telnet session by issuing the line-number command.
If this does not help, the router may not be configured to accept Telnet sessions. Cisco routers do not accept incoming network connections to asynchronous ports (TTY lines) by default.
You must specify an incoming transport protocol or specify the all command before the line accepts incoming connections.
If you are using your router as a terminal server to make console-port connections to routers or other devices, you will not be able to use Telnet to connect to these devices.
For more information about the transport input all command, refer to the section of .