Checking e-mails using telnet command...

Hi,

This is a pretty little tutorial about checking your e-mails using the telnet command and POP3 protocol.

Note: I looked for a tutorial about this throughout the forums but i couldn't find one about receiving e-mails, just about sending them. If there is already one made, then please just tell me and i will erase this tutorial, no prob.

Steps to follow:



1 - Go to Start/Run and type:

telnet (your server address) 110

example: telnet adinet.com.uy 110

Note: the command console will prompt and you should see this (depending on your server address): +OK POP3 server ready <numbers> <more numbers @correo.adinet.com.uy> or you should just see this: +OK ready



2 - then type:

user (and your username)

example: user antionliner

Note: you should see this: +OK Password required



3 - so type:

pass (your e-mail password)

example: pass j34yhp7go5r

Note: you should see this: +OK (and number of e-mails) for example: +OK 10 messages



4 - To see the e-mails received type:

list

Note: you should see all the messages listed with its respectives numbers and sizes.



5 - To see the content of a determined e-mail write:

top (e-mail number) and (number of lines you want to see of that e-mail)

example: top 1 10

Note: you should see the e-mail content



That's all. Then:



6 - To delete a determined message write:

dele (and the e-mail number)

example: dele 1

Note: you should see this: +OK message 1 deleted



Note: After typing something you obviously should hit "Enter". Besides, if you open the command console and you don't see what you are typing it seems you have the "echo local" option deactivated, so go to the terminal/console preferences and activate it. There is no need to do this in Windows XP.

Well, this could be really useful if you're in a hurry and you need to check your e-mails real fast and you can't wait that your e-mail client (Outlook Express for example) download your e-mails from the server and (in that exact moment) an e-mail with a 1 MB attachment is preventing you from seeing the rest of your e-mails still in the server until the "big" attachment is fully downloaded.

Hope it helps,

DKRR

Can also be usefull to clean up your mailbox if you've been flooded....

Ammo

this can be really handy indeed when the mail client gets bogged down.
<€0.04>

retr (number)
exampleL retr 1
will return the entire message

and for its twin, SMTP

telnet into the server on port 25
login as above, if you have to. some allow anonymous access with login name guest and pass guest or user anonymous and pass something@here.com or sometimes blank passwords, it depends.

once you are in
help
lists the commands available to you and
google
helps find what the commands do.

in short, to send an email
mail from: <whatever@this.com>
rcpt to: <them@whatever.com>
data
whatever, and
as much of whatever as
you want here
.
the '.' sends the message :)
</0.04>
e&oe

Usually when i try to connect using telnet it just says that the host could not be reached (even when i use a port scanner) or the telnet window will not display any kind of echo or text.

Im using XP and when i use 2000, or 98 theres really no problem

Help!?!?!

are you running a firewall?if not check out if the win xp firewall is running in the backround.if yes disable it.then try again!

Quote:

---

example: pass j34yhp7go5r

---

That's my f****** password DK !

Thanks DKRR, can I add tips for *nix? (I apologises DKRR I think.. off the topic from telnet,if you don't like it I'll erase ASAP), I've got "grepmail" installed on my *nix box. This is how I search my mail folder using "grepmail":
1. Let's say I wanna see a mail folder and have name "Toshiba Shop"
% grepmail -R -i -l toshiba ~/Mail
Mail/conf/acs_w01
2. Last week I was looking for the "phone number" of "Toshiba Shop", which was in a mail message somewhere, but I couldn't remember where I'd filed it. So I done this one:
% grepmail -i toshiba '!!' | grep -i telephone
Telephone: 365-652-654