Sending and Receiving mail using Command line through telnet

Ok first off im no good at writing tutorials so feel free to flame me (hey that rymes). Anyway in this tutorial i will basically show you how to send and receive email via the command-line terminal emulation program called Telnet. Now where shall i start, hmm.. Sending Email!!

Sending Email

Sending email requires a special type of server called an SMTP server (SMTP -> Simple Mail Transfer Protocol). SMTP is the protocol used to send email just like POP is the protocol used to receive. Now by default and most commonly SMTP servers run on port 25. To describe a port i will have to basically describe a connection. Think of a server as a block of flats/apartments and each flat/apartment (with its own individual number) is a port, so a port is just a way into another system. Anyway back to SMTP servers, so to send email you need an smtp server, your email provider should have one (smtp server list at end of tutorial). Anyway once you have your smtp server open up msdos (cmd) by going to Start > Run and typing in cmd and pressing enter. Then open up telnet and type “o smtpserver.host.domain smtpserverport”.

Telnet mail.servername.com 25

Anyway once your into the server you should be greeted by whats called a banner, a banner is just a message displayed to a user once he/she connects. The banner should look like this:

220 SERVERHERE mail server

just type “helo SERVERHERE” to let the server know your there and ready to start commanding it.

next you need to establish where the email message is coming from so type:

mail from: youremail@youremailprovider.com

next you need to establish where the email message is going to so type:

rcpt to: receiver@theiremailprovider.com

type “data” press enter.

Enter your message and enter ‘.’ on a line by itself press enter to finish the message, the server should then send the message, next just type quit to leave the smtp server and your done!!

[SMTP Servers]
i will now list some common email providers smtp servers.
Gmail SMTP Server: smtp.gmail.com
Hotmail: mx1.hotmail.com
Yahoo: mx1.mail.yahoo.com
Other: contact your email provider for your smtp server.

Receiving Email!
Right now that thats out of the way time to move on to receiving email. Now just like sending email, receiving email also needs a special type of server, its called a POP server, POP = Post Office Protocol, the protocol created for the purpose of receiving email. When you send email your sending it to the receipitents POP server. The default port for POP servers is 110. Open up a command prompt like you did before and type:

telnet “POPSERVER” 110

next you need to login to the POP server, have your username and password ready.

type USER followed your username, press return then
type PASS followed by your password then press return and if everything is ok you should be logged in.

Next to see if you have any messages type LIST which will return your messages, you wont see the subjects but instead the size in bytes of the email, bit confusing i know. You will also see the id number of the email

e.g.
QUOTE
1) 1843
2) 7892
3) 9989

3 is obviously the largest email, to read the email you simply type:

RETR id

and finally to delete an email you type:

DELE id

well thats it for this tutorial hope you found it useful