How to configure telnet?

I’m doing an experiment with telnet (yes, I use ssh daily). I’ve installed xinetd, telnetd and telnet. When I try it locally (or remotely) I get the output:

osmc@osmc:~$ telnet localhost
Trying ::1…
Trying 127.0.0.1…
telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: Connection refused

I’ve added the IP of the client computer to the ALLOW section of the config file at /etc/xinetd.conf

The help online doesn’t jive with the osmc version - can anyone advise?