diff --git a/netdiff/parsers/base.py b/netdiff/parsers/base.py
index dd3eddb..033306f 100644
--- a/netdiff/parsers/base.py
+++ b/netdiff/parsers/base.py
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 import networkx
 import requests
-from Exscript.protocols import telnetlib
+from telnetlib3 import telnetlib
 
 from ..exceptions import ConversionException, TopologyRetrievalError
 from ..utils import _netjson_networkgraph, diff
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index dd10cb3..cd61d0c 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -2,4 +2,4 @@ requests<3.0
 libcnml<0.10.0
 openvpn-status>=0.2,<0.3
 networkx>=3.4,<3.7
-Exscript>=2.6.32
+telnetlib3>=5,<6
diff --git a/tests/test_base.py b/tests/test_base.py
index e0fe6b9..19176d4 100644
--- a/tests/test_base.py
+++ b/tests/test_base.py
@@ -3,9 +3,11 @@
 
 import responses
 from requests.exceptions import ConnectionError
+from telnetlib3 import telnetlib as telnetlib3
 
 from netdiff import get_version
 from netdiff.exceptions import ConversionException, NetJsonError, TopologyRetrievalError
+from netdiff.parsers import base
 from netdiff.parsers.base import BaseParser
 from netdiff.utils import _netjson_networkgraph
 
@@ -18,6 +20,9 @@
 class TestBaseParser(unittest.TestCase):
     """BaseParser tests"""
 
+    def test_telnet_uses_telnetlib3(self):
+        self.assertIs(base.telnetlib, telnetlib3)
+
     def _load_contents(self, file):
         return open(os.path.abspath(file)).read()
 
@@ -63,16 +68,22 @@ def request_callback(request):
         with self.assertRaises(TopologyRetrievalError):
             BaseParser(url="http://connectionerror.com")
 
-    @mock.patch("Exscript.protocols.telnetlib.Telnet")
+    @mock.patch("netdiff.parsers.base.telnetlib.Telnet")
     def test_telnet_retrieval_error(self, MockClass):
         MockClass.side_effect = ValueError("testing exception")
         with self.assertRaises(TopologyRetrievalError):
             BaseParser(url="telnet://wrong.com")
 
-    @mock.patch("Exscript.protocols.telnetlib.Telnet")
+    @mock.patch("netdiff.parsers.base.telnetlib.Telnet")
     def test_telnet_retrieval(self, MockClass):
-        with self.assertRaises(ConversionException):
-            BaseParser(url="telnet://127.0.0.1")
+        telnet = MockClass.return_value
+        telnet.read_all.return_value = b"{}"
+        parser = BaseParser(url="telnet://127.0.0.1:23")
+        self.assertIsInstance(parser.original_data, dict)
+        MockClass.assert_called_once_with("127.0.0.1", 23, timeout=None)
+        telnet.write.assert_called_once_with(b"\r\n")
+        telnet.read_all.assert_called_once_with()
+        telnet.close.assert_called_once_with()
 
     def test_topology_retrieval_error_file(self):
         with self.assertRaises(TopologyRetrievalError):