Question:

How do I manually telnet to my POP (Post Office Protocol) server to check if my mail server is accepting connections?

Answer:

This method of manually connecting to the mail server is sometimes necessary in order to help better troubleshoot Messaging/Mail issues. By directly telneting to the POP server, you can determine if the problem is within the client software or the server. Following is a list of commands to be executed from the UNIX command line or DOS shell using the telnet utility:

Telnetting to port 110 (the POP port). telnet machine 110 POP commands: USER uid Log in as "uid" PASS password Substitue "password" for your actual password STAT List number of messages, total mailbox size LIST List messages and sizes RETR n Show message n DELE n Mark message n for deletion RSET Undo any changes QUIT Logout (expunges messages if no RSET) TOP msg n Show first n lines of message number msg