Sending passwords and other sensitive data over the network in clear text (unencrypted) is a very bad idea — by use of packet-sniffers, such data can be obtained from network traffic by anyone with administrator privileges on any host or router (or other network equipment) overwhich the packets travel. Telnet, FTP, HTTP, POP, IMAP and the r-commands send data, including usernames/passwords in clear text — use SSH, SCP, SFTP, POPS and IMAPS instead; ensure Web pages into which usernames/passwords and other sensitive data are entered are using HTTPS.
ssh clients are freely available for download and installation for both Linux and Solaris. (In fact most distributions of Linux come with an ssh client ready-installed.) The two most popular clients are that from the Open SSH organisation and from SSH Communications.
The OpenSSH client is available for free download from www.openssh.org as both source (to be compiled) and Linux RPM binaries. Solaris binaries may be downloaded from sunfreeware.com.
The SSH Communications client for Unix is available for free download (for academic and other non-commercial uses) from www.ssh.com in source form, for compilation and installation. An MS Windows client, in binary format, is also available.
PuTTY is a second freely-available SSH client for MS Windows and is freely-available from www.chiark.greenend.org.uk.
SSH daemons for Unix machines are available from both the OpenSSH organisation (free) and SSH Communications (free for non-commercial use). Most Linux distributions come with the OpenSSH implementation already installed --- binaries will be available from your usual mirror site; Solaris binaries from sunfreeware.com; and the OpenSSH source code is available from www.openssh.org.
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