diff --git a/appl/telnet/aclocal.m4 b/appl/telnet/aclocal.m4
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..67c045665
--- /dev/null
+++ b/appl/telnet/aclocal.m4
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+dnl use the aclocal.m4 from the top directory
+
+builtin(include,../../aclocal.m4)