TechnoTravel

How to Telnet your POP account

Set-up your Telnet program to connect to the POP server at port 110 eg. mail-server.fire.net 110 .Once the connection has been established , the POP3 server issues a one line greeting. e.g. +OK POP3 server ready

Responses from the POP3 consist of a success indicator and a keyword possibly followed by additional information. There are two success indicators: positive ("+OK") and negative ("-ERR").

Now you must identify yourself

USER name ( name is the fist part of your email address e.g. name@somehost.somecountry )

PASS secret (secret is you password for your POP account ) Now you can get your mail

LIST ( list how many messages in your mailbox and how big they are)


RETR n ( receive message number n ) Messages are not automatic delete after they are read

DELE n (marked messages number n for deleting )

RSET (unmarked all messages) QUIT ( Delete all marked messages and quit )

An example

Michael (Michael@gipsy.net) is travelling the world. Shortly after he arrived in Hong Kong he went to the local CyberCafe to check his mail

first he telnet his POP server at port 110

+OK POP3 server ready

USER Michael
+OK Michael is welcome.

PASS 2good2be4goten
+OK mailbox locked

LIST
+OK 1 messages 491 (octets)
1 491

RETR 1
Received: from [194.69.42.108] by mail-server.hk-online.hk Sat, 4 Nov 98 20:24:56 (GMT)
From: Jane@fire.com
To: Michael@gipsy.net
Subject: Trans-Siberian Railway
Date: Sat, 04 Nov 1998 19:23:00 GMT
Reply-To: Jane@fire.com

Hi Michael
I'm going to take the Trans-Siberian Railway to
Moscow. If you're interested, meet me in Beijing for the
Chinese new year.

Jane

DELE 1
+OK message 1 deleted.

QUIT
+OK Updated mailbox.


A more detailed explanation on POP3 can be found here rfc1081: Post Office Protocol - Version 3


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