There are several telnet clients that are much better than the one bundled with Microsoft Windows. Here are two that I've used. You can download the software directly from this web server, or click the other link for the developer's web site, with full technical information.
Thinking ahead to the end of the semester, after which you won't be able to access our Unix lab server, the best way to use something like UNIX at home is to install a Linux distribution, which you can purchase inexpensively at computer stores or download for free from sites such as Red Hat or Mandrake. These Linux distributions even have the ability to divvy up your hard drive, putting Windows on one partition and Linux on the other. Another possibility is to run Cygwin. Cygwin is a free UNIX environment for Windows. It consists of two parts: a DLL which acts as a UNIX emulation layer providing substantial UNIX API functionality, and a collection of tools, ported from UNIX, which provide UNIX/Linux look and feel. Any questions? Just ask!
With so many books on the market, it isn't possible for me to provide a definitive list. But here are some that I've found to be useful:
Learning the vi Editor, 6th Edition. Linda Lamb and Arnold Robbins. 1998, O'Reilly & Associates, ISBN 1-56592-426-6.
Managing Projects with make. Andrew Oram and Steve Talbott. 1993, O'Reilly & Associates, ISBN 0-937175-90-0.
Last updated 26 Feb 2003