Friday The Automatic FAQ Maker
| Dealing with HTML email, attachments, etc. | Back to RDP Web Resources | Free email services |
WARNING: Contains ferociously nerdical content
On occasion, we write code that sends email. Sometimes, it actually works the first time.
More often, we need to figure out why not.
While it's nicest to have the computer emulate what the human would get bored doing, sometimes it helps to have the human do what the computer can't quite seem to do on its own.
For that reason, we sometimes resort to manual telnet sessions with a remote mail server.
Simple manual telnet session with mail host
Uppercase/lowercase does not appear to be significant.
| You do/type this | Server responds with |
| Telnet to hostname on port 25 | 220 (then identifies itself - possibly with several lines of 220 + text) |
| HELO your_domain_name or whatever | 250 (followed by human readable message) |
| MAIL FROM:you@hostname.com (ie, your email address) | 250 |
| RCPT TO:them@someplace_else.com (email address you want to send to) | 250 |
| DATA | Tells you to send data then CRLF period CRLF at end |
| You type your message then CRLF period CRLF (ie, type a period on a line by itself then hit ENTER) | 250 |
| QUIT | Signoff message |
| Dealing with HTML email, attachments, etc. | Back to RDP Web Resources | Free email services |