Telnet is a text-based program that you can use to connect to other computers. By entering commands into Telnet, you can remotely control computers as if you were sitting right behind them. Telnet is built into both Windows and Mac OS. It can also be used to view mail. Telnet makes it easy to check your mail over the Internet, monitor the flow of emails and fix problems. However, it should be noted that Telnet is not encrypted. Most public Internet services like Google or Yahoo require an encrypted connection, but Telnet does not.
Steps
Part 1 of 2: Accessing Incoming Emails
Step 1. Open Command Prompt
If your computer is running Windows, click Start> Run and enter "cmd" (without quotes).
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For Windows Vista, 7, 8 and 10 users: Before you can use Telnet, you will need to enable it. To do this, go to Control Panel> Programs and Features and click on option Turn Windows features on and off.
Check the box next to the Telnet Client option and then configure it. After that, the program will be turned on.
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For Mac users: Open a Finder window. Please select Programs> Utilities> Terminal.
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For Linux users: Press Ctrl + Alt + T. You can also open the Applications window and select Standard> Terminal.
Check Email with Telnet Step 2 Step 2. Go to Telnet
Enter "telnet emailprovider.com 110" (without the quotes) into the command line. Instead of "emailprovider", you must write the name of the private mail server. It usually comes after the @ sign in your mailing address.
For example, if your mailing address is “[email protected]”, you would write “telnet mail.comcast.net 110”
Check Email with Telnet Step 3 Step 3. Enter your username
Enter "USER username" (without the quotes) into the command line. Replace "username" with what comes before the @ sign in your mailing address.
- For example, if your mailing address is [email protected], you would write "USER Hagrid".
- At this stage, you may not see anything from what you write.
Check Email with Telnet Step 4 Step 4. Enter your password
Enter "PASS [your_password]". You must enter the password with which you enter the mail.
- For example, if your password is "norbert731", you would write "PASS norbert731".
- Again, you may not see anything you write.
Part 2 of 2: Viewing and Deleting Messages
Check Email with Telnet Step 5 Step 1. Open the list with messages
Enter "list". You will see a numbered list represented by long numbers. They will look like "1 607" and "2 1323403". The first number is responsible for the location of the letter in the Inbox folder. The second number represents the exact size of the letter in bytes.
One byte is equal to eight bits
Check Email with Telnet Step 6 Step 2. Review the letters from the list
For example, if you want to look at a letter marked "2 1323403", enter "retr 2". You can replace “2” with any other number that corresponds to the message in your Inbox.
Check Email with Telnet Step 7 Step 3. Delete unnecessary letters
For example, if you want to delete the message "1 607", enter "dele 1".
Enter "List" again and you will see that the message is gone
Check Email with Telnet Step 8 Step 4. Disconnect from the server when you are finished working with the program
Enter "quit" to disconnect from the mail server. Press Alt + F4 to close the program.
- Mac users: Type "quit" and then press ⌘ Cmd + Q
- For Linux users: Enter "quit" and then press Ctrl + C