cross platform telnet question

[mmn]

I'd like to be able to telnet to my Linux box (Mandrake 7.1 Complete
boxed set  using
KDE) from my mac and windows box. This is a sort of a first step on the
long road
Linux/windows networking via samba.

Right now my goal is to establish a simple telnet  connection via
TCP/IP. On the hardware side Its a direct machine to machine ethernet
cable link (no hub). As for the terminal software, I have bettertelnet
and niftytelent (with ssh r3). On the windows side I'll stick to the
default  telnet app that coems with windows NT and 98.According to
webmin, I have the telnet server installed and running.

The problem is that I'm not sure what I exactly need to configure to
enable  telnet from non *nix machines. All the books I've read breifly
mention telnet and they all assume that you are telneting from one *nix
box to another. I've used telnet like this for years but when it comes
to setting it up on my own Linux box I'n not sure whare to start. any
pointers on what is involved?