Send mail through SMTP using Telnet
Developers in my office constantly complain that the SMTP server is down and no mails are being sent out. We come back saying that their application is buggy. Most often after hours of troubleshooting the problem will turn out to be the application itself.
Here’s a simple way to test your SMTP server over port 25 using Telnet to proof them wrong.
Telnet to the server via port 25.
1. Key in “EHLO example.com” and hit enter.
2. Key in “MAIL FROM: sender@domain.com” and hit enter.
3. Key in “RCPT TO: recipient@domain.com” and hit enter.
4. Key in “DATA” and hit enter.
5. Key in your message body and hit enter.
6. Key in ” . ” and press enter.
If you received the mail then your SMTP is working fine.
Sample output,
[root@abooboo tmp]# telnet 192.168.0.25 25
Trying 192.168.0.25…
Connected to 192.168.0.25 (192.168.0.25).
Escape character is ‘^]’.
220 smtp11.klk.example.com Microsoft ESMTP MAIL Service, Version: 5.0.2195.6713 ready at Thu, 3 Apr 2008 15:39:17 +0800
EHLO Vsource.com
250-smtp11.klk.example.com Hello [192.168.0.192]
250-AUTH GSSAPI NTLM LOGIN
250-AUTH=LOGIN
250-TURN
250-ATRN
250-SIZE
250-ETRN
250-PIPELINING
250-DSN
250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
250-8bitmime
250-BINARYMIME
250-CHUNKING
250-VRFY
250 OK
MAIL FROM: danesh@example.com
250 2.1.0 danesh@example.com….Sender OK
RCPT TO: danesh_manoharan@example.com
250 2.1.5 danesh_manoharan@example.com
DATA
354 Start mail input; end with
this is a test over SMTP
.
250 2.6.0
quit
221 2.0.0 smtp11.klk.example.com Service closing transmission channel
Connection closed by foreign host.
[root@abooboo tmp]#
[ RFC 821 ] Thanks Cinod79
cinod79 | April 3rd, 2008 at 4:08 pm #
oh yeah, an effective way to tell coders to learn some network skills and protocol programming skills. I often getby with netcat
Any way heres the RFC. Always read the RFC..
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc0821.txt
Raja | April 3rd, 2008 at 4:48 pm #
After DATA, add subject: My Subject to get a subject in your email.
E.g.:-
DATA
354 Start mail input; end with .
subject: What’s Metallica’s Famous Test Phrase?
Testicles 1-2-3
.
250 2.6.0 Queued mail for delivery
Wing Loon | April 3rd, 2008 at 9:42 pm #
Cool… I use this every time to troubleshoot SMTP issue. How about finding another solution for sending email using SMTP authentication? Hehehe…
Kitkat | April 5th, 2008 at 1:38 am #
Good post. I did a similar one sometime ago http://www.kongtechnology.com/2008/01/27/smtp-authentication-and-send-emails-using-telnet/
Danny | April 6th, 2008 at 7:17 pm #
WL, KitKat has your answer
http://www.kongtechnology.com/2008/01/27/smtp-authentication-and-send-emails-using-telnet/
Wing Loon | April 6th, 2008 at 11:16 pm #
Cool, thanks bro,
srinivas mutyala | July 2nd, 2008 at 5:13 am #
Helped alot , thank bhayaa !!
[root@abooboo tmp]# telnet 192.168.0.25 25
Trying 192.168.0.25…
Connected to 192.168.0.25 (192.168.0.25).
Escape character is ‘^]’.
220 smtp11.klk.example.com Microsoft ESMTP MAIL Service, Version: 5.0.2195.6713 ready at Thu, 3 Apr 2008 15:39:17 +0800
EHLO Vsource.com
250-smtp11.klk.example.com Hello [192.168.0.192]
250-AUTH GSSAPI NTLM LOGIN
250-AUTH=LOGIN
250-TURN
250-ATRN
250-SIZE
250-ETRN
250-PIPELINING
250-DSN
250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
250-8bitmime
250-BINARYMIME
250-CHUNKING
250-VRFY
250 OK
MAIL FROM: danesh@example.com
250 2.1.0 danesh@example.com….Sender OK
RCPT TO: danesh_manoharan@example.com
250 2.1.5 danesh_manoharan@example.com
DATA
354 Start mail input; end with .
this is a test over SMTP
.
250 2.6.0 Queued mail for delivery
quit
221 2.0.0 smtp11.klk.example.com Service closing transmission channel
Connection closed by foreign host.
[root@abooboo tmp]#
soldeir | July 8th, 2008 at 3:03 pm #
No AUTH at 250 still outlook can send email but telnet fail asking the AUTH
Mel | October 30th, 2008 at 1:28 am #
Email addresses in RCPT TO and MAIL FROM need to be enclosed between angle brackets. Even though some SMTP servers accept without, it’s increasingly more popular to enable strict RFC 822 mode for addressing, because it prevents a good portion of virus mailers and some spam software to send mail to you.