Test Email Via Telnet

Often you will need to test if email is working correctly within your organization. and a great way to do that is through Telnet.

First you will need to know the host name or ip address of the mail server or relay you wish to test.
If you don't know you can use nslookup.

Use Nslookup to determine your mail server.
1. Open an Administrative command prompt.
2. Type "nslookup" press enter.
3. Type "set type=mx" press enter.
4. Type your domain name.
5. It will then return results showing server name and ipaddress.

Now you have the mail server we can make the Telent connection.

1. Open an administrative Command prompt window.
2  Type "telnet YourMailServer 25" press enter.
3. Type "ehlo yourdomain.com" press enter.
4. Type "mail from:youremail@yourdomain.com" press enter.
5. Type "rcpt to:recpient@yourdomain.com" press enter.
6. Type "data" press enter.
7. Type a message(email body) eg. "this is a test" press enter
8. Type "." press enter. This tells the server you are finished with the body of the message and to go ahead and send the email.
9. Type "Quit" to exit the telnet session.

You have now sent a test email message via Telent!