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SMTP connection using telnet

Did you ever need to test a SMTP server quickly?

If the answer is yes, probably you had hear something about using telnet to send emails directly.

I've used this trick a thousand times myself, but I always forget the correct commands and the order I have to provide them to the SMTP server.

Transcription follows:

[Fenris] ~> telnet mail.e-shell.org 25
Trying 212.89.9.184...
Connected to mail.e-shell.org.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 [ ESMTP Codigo23 mail server ] - [ Will Hack Unix for food ]
ehlo localhost
250-Frey.e-shell.org Hello cm82227.red.mundo-r.com [213.60.82.227], pleased to meet you
250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
250-PIPELINING
250-8BITMIME
250-SIZE 5242880
250-DSN
250-STARTTLS
250-DELIVERBY
250 HELP
mail from: you@yahoo.com
250 2.1.0 you@yahoo.com... Sender ok
rcpt to: jarjarthisisnotmymail@e-shell.org
250 2.1.5 jarjarthisisnotmymail@e-shell.org... Recipient ok
data
354 Enter mail, end with "." on a line by itself
This is a sample mail sent to you via telnet!
.
250 2.0.0 m6AB3LDP071599 Message accepted for delivery

Explanation:

1- Connect to the server using telnet:

telnet mail.e-shell.org 25

2- Say hello to the server:

ehlo localhost

3- Tell the server who is sending the email:

mail from: you@yahoo.com

4- Then tell it the destination address:

rcpt to: jarjarthisisnotmymail@e-shell.org

5- Finally tell the server you are about to write the message contents:

data

NOTE: If you want to add a subject to your mail, just add a line like:

Subject: this is my subject

at the beginning of the body. You will need to press enter twice for it to work properly.

6- Once you are done, push enter, then add a single dot (.) and push enter again.

7- Mail sent!

(Anyone who can teach us how to do that using netcat??)