Six Easy Steps to Telnet

Most PCs have the Telnet utility on them already. Each operating system seems to have a different "flavor" of telnet; some are GUI, and some are run through a DOS-type shell. I'm going to cover the GUI version, but almost everything I mention can be done in the DOS-type version as well. SMTP commands are standard and will work regardless of the utility you have. (Note: you can copy the Telnet application from one OS version to another and have it work most of the time, as long as, you are using the same OS vendor).

To get started, all you have to do is Start - Run - and type telnet into the target field. This will launch the version installed on your PC or allow you to execute the GUI application window. From the GUI application you may want to change some of the application preferences, most often you'll need to turn on the local echo, which allows you to see what you are typing when connected to a device, in our case a GWIA.

1. From the Connect menu, select the Remote System option. Then in the new window that appears enter the IP Address or DNS name of your GWIA server and fill out the port field as 25 (SMTP) and hit the connect button. You should then see a "Service Ready" message like the following:

   220 server_name.domain.com GroupWise Internet Agent 6.0.5 (C)1993, 2001 Novell, Inc. Ready

   The above line indicates that communication from your physical location on the network is able to get to the GWIA server via port 25 (SMTP). Just this simple test proves some firewall rules are working and some of the GWIA configuration is setup properly. From the ready prompt you can continue to enter some basic commands that will actually generate and send a message.



2. Start with the Hello command - "HELO" and hit enter.
   
   You should get a response of "250 server_name.domain.com Ok".



3. The next command to enter is who you are - "MAIL FROM:" line and hit enter. For example: MAIL FROM: jsmith@companyinc.com
   
   Again, you should get a response of "250 Ok". At any point that you don't get a positive response you will see a different error code (generally in the 500 range) with a hint at what may be wrong.



4. The third command that you type is the who are you sending to - "RCPT TO:" and hit enter For example: RCPT TO: ssmith@companyinc.com
   
   Again, you should get a response of "250 Ok".



5. The fourth command to enter is "DATA", that's it - just data and then hit enter.
   
   You should get a response of "354 Enter mail, end with "." on a line by itself" and your cursor should be a line by itself. At this point you can type your message. You can type anything on the screen and the application will wrap the text for you. When you've completed typing the message start a new line and just type a period (".") and hit enter. Which will again respond with a "250 OK" message and at that point send the item.



6. To disconnect from the GWIA you can type "Quit" and hit enter or from the drop-down you can select disconnect.

That's it! A few simple steps that allow you to verify many things, such as delivery of the message that was created (either inside or outside your network), firewall rules, SMTP Access Control rules and so on including things like SPAM or content filters.

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