Telnet automation / scripting

There's a python library for telnet connections that reads and writes from/to a telnet connection.

Check the link. It has some basic examples of what you are looking for.

Here's an example from the link:

import getpass
import sys
import telnetlib

HOST = "localhost"
user = raw_input("Enter your remote account: ")
password = getpass.getpass()

tn = telnetlib.Telnet(HOST)

tn.read_until("login: ")
tn.write(user + "\n")
if password:
    tn.read_until("Password: ")
    tn.write(password + "\n")

tn.write("ls\n")
tn.write("exit\n")

print tn.read_all()

It connects to a telnet server. Sends your login credentials and then executes the unix command ls. Then exits the session and prints all output from the telnet server.

You may want to consider Exscript as well. It simplifies some of the easy tasks but for more complicated there is additional level of abstraction (Exscript is a scripting language in itself). Either way - worth checking out.