Telnet Mail server troubleshooting command

 Telnet - SMTP Commands (sending mail using telnet)

#telnet mail.domain.ext 25
You should receive a reply like:

Trying ???.???.???.???...
Connected to mail.domain.ext.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 mail.domain.ext ESMTP Sendmail ?version-number?; ?date+time+gmtoffset?

You will then need to declare where you are sending the email from:

#HELO local.domain.name

This should give you:

250 mail.domain.ext Hello local.domain.name [loc.al.i.p], pleased to meet you

Now give your email address:

(On many mailservers the space after the : is required rather that optional. Thanks to Justing Goldberg)

MAIL FROM: mail@domain.ext

250 2.1.0 mail@domain.ext... Sender ok

Now give the recipients address:

RCPT TO: mail@otherdomain.ext

250 2.1.0 mail@otherdomain.ext... Recipient ok

To start composing the message issue the command DATA

If you want a subject for your email type Subject: type subject here- then press enter twice (these are needed to conform to RFC 882)


You may now proceed to type the body of your message (e.g. hello mail@otherdomain.ext from mail@domain.ext)


To tell the mail server that you have completed the message enter a single dot "." on a line on it's own.

The mail server should reply with: 250 2.0.0 ???????? Message accepted for delivery


You can close the connection by issuing the QUIT command.

The mailserver should reply with something like:

221 2.0.0 mail.domain.ext closing connection
Connection closed by foreign host.

Telnet - POP Commands (retrieving mail using telnet)

telnet mail.domain.ext 110

You should receive a reply like:

Trying ???.???.???.???...
Connected to mail.domain.ext.
Escape character is '^]'.
+OK ready


Then log in:

USER userName

This should give you:

+OK Password required for userName.


Now give your password:


PASS paSwd


Should yeild:

+OK userName has ? visible messages (? hidden) in ????? octets.


If it doesn't please see possible problems.


To see a list of your emails awaiting collection use the LIST command, this will also show you the id number of your messages (e.g. 1 or 2 etc.)

To view the contents of an email type RETR + the id number of the message (e.g RETR 1).

To delete a message use DELE + the id number of the message (e.g DELE 1).

To leave your mailbox and close the connection use QUIT