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Using the Telnet client to open a SMTP session and/or send a message

Telnet can be used to open a SMTP session and/or send a message to MDaemon, or another server.  This is normally used for troubleshooting issues with clients connecting to servers.  The following steps will detail how to use telnet to connect to a server and/or send a message.

The IP address used for the mail server in this example is 192.168.0.1.  You'll need to use your own IP address or host name in place of our example IP.

  1. In Windows open a command prompt window.
  2. From Command line, type: telnet 192.168.0.1 25 [enter]
    • You should get a reply from the mail server you're connecting to. For example, a default MDaemon server would respond with: 220 mail.altn.com ESMTP MDaemon 16.5.0; Wed, 28 Sep 2016 07:11:08 -0500
    • If telnet is not enabled on the client/server, please click the link below to enable the telnet client.
      Install Telnet Client
  3. Next, give the HELO/EHLO command followed by enter: ehlo mail.company.test
    • You should see a reply that starts like this: 250-domain123.example.com Hello mail.company.test, pleased to meet you
  4. Enter the return path for the message followed by enter: MAIL FROM: user01@company.test 
    • The reply should be something like this: 250 <user01@company.test>, Sender ok
  5. Enter the recipient for the message followed by enter: rcpt to: user02@company.test
    • The reply should be something like this: 250 <user02@company.test>, Recipient ok
  6. Enter the data command followed by enter: data
    • The replay will resemble the following: 354 Please start mail input.
  7. Enter the following lines, replacing the addresses with what you'd like to use (enter at the end of each line):
    to: user01@company.test
    from: user02@company.test
    subject: test
    date: Wed, 28 Sep 2016 07:00:00 -0500

    test message body
    . 
    • The period on a line by itself tells the mail server that you're done transmitting the message.
    • The replay from the mail server will look like the following: 250 Mail queued for delivery. 
  1. Enter the command to end the session followed by enter: quit
    • The replay from the mail server will look like the following: 221 Closing connection. Good bye.
  2. Close the command window.