How To Telnet Email

The first thing to do is to open a connection from your computer to your mail server.

telnet pop.streamyx.com 110

You should receive a reply like:

Trying Connected to pop.streamyx.com 110
Escape character is '^]'.
+OK ready

Then log in:

USER username@streamyx.com
+OK password required for user username@streamyx.com
+OK Name is a valid mailbox

PASS password
+OK Maildrop ready

If it doesn’t, please see possible problems.

• To see a list of your emails awaiting collection use the LIST command, this will also show you the id number of your messages (e.g. 1 or 2 etc)
• To view the contents of an email type RETR + the id number of the message (e.g RETR 1)
• To delete a message use DELE + the id number of the message (e.g DELE 1)
• To leave your mailbox and close the connection use QUIT

Here are a list of problems I’ve encountered and their fixes

-ERR [AUTH] Password supplied for “userName” is incorrect.

The password supplied was not the one expected by the server; retype the password, failing that find out if you’ve got the correct password

-ERR [AUTH] PAM authentication failed for user “userName”: Authentication failure (7)

Your mailbox could not be broken down into separate emails correctly, there may be a remnant of a message left – Ask your ISP to edit the mailbox manually and look for free lines above the headers

452 4.4.5 Insufficient disk space; try again later

The mailserver cannot write the temporary files needed to allow you to collect your mail – ask your ISP to check disk usage and allocation on the server

-ERR [SYS/TEMP] Unable to copy mail spool file, quota exceeded (122)

The mail server cannot create a temporary file needed to allow you access to your mailbox as you’ve run out of your space allocation – Try to reduce the amount of disk space you are using on that server (this quota may be shared between your mail, web and user space), alternatively contact your ISP to increase your quota.

-ERR [IN-USE] /???/???/.userName.pop lock busy! Is another session active? (11)

The mailbox is currently in use by another connection or an old connection has terminated uncleanly – This will deal with itself

Overquota locking file ‘/???/???/???/userName.lock’; lock proceeding anyway

Unable to process From lines (envelopes) in /???/???/???/userName; change recognition mode or check for corrupted mail drop.

The mailbox cannot be split into separate messages because the pop server cannot recognize distinct boundaries or the boundaries do not include the whole mailbox

SMTP TELNET

The first thing to do is to open a connection from your computer to your mail server.

telnet smtp.streamyx.com 25

You should receive a reply like:

Trying Connected to smtp.streamyx.com 25
Escape character is '^]'.
220 av2.tm.net.my -- Server ESMTP (TMNet)

You will then need to declare where you are sending the email from:

HELO local.domain.name (don’t worry too much about your local domain name although you really should use your exact fully qualified domain name as seen by the outside world the mail server has no choice but to take your word for it as of RFC822-RFC1123)

This should give you:

HELO av2.tm.net.my
251 av2.tm.net.my system name not given in HELO command, [218.208.97.194].
HELO 218.208.97.194250 2.5.0 HELO/EHLO command already issued.

Now give your email address:

MAIL FROM: username@streamyx.com

Should yields:

MAIL FROM username@streamyx.com
501 5.5.4 No FROM: in MAIL/SAML/SEND/SOML.

If it doesn’t, please see possible problems.

Now give the recipients address:

RCPT TO: username@streamyx.com

Should yield:

250 2.1.0 username@streamyx.com... Recipient ok

If it doesn’t, please see possible problems.

To start composing the message issue the command DATA

If you want a subject for your email type Subject:-type subject here- then press enter twice (these are needed to conform to RFC 882)

You may now proceed to type the body of your message (e.g. hello username@streamyx.com from username@streamyx.com)

To tell the mail server that you have completed the message enter a single “.” on a line on its own. The mail server should reply with: 250 2.0.0 ???????? Message accepted for delivery

You can close the connection by issuing the QUIT command. The mail server should reply with something like: 221 2.0.0 username@streamyx.com closing connection:

221 2.3.0 Bye received. Goodbye.

Here are a list of problems I’ve encountered and their fixes

501 nouser@nosuchplace.here… Sender domain must exist

The domain that you are sending from must exist

503 Need MAIL before RCPT

A recipient has been specified before a sender

550 mail@domain.ext… Relaying Denied

The mail server has refused to relay mail for you, this may be for any number of reasons but typical reasons include (1)Not using this provider for an internet connection and / or (2)Not using an email address provided by the owner of the server.