The POP3 (Post Office Protocol Version 3) is an application-layer Internet standard protocol used by local Email clients to retrieve Email from a remote server over a TCP/IP connection.
This tutorial shows how to connect to POP3 mail server and manage incoming Email using the ‘telnet’ command.
Step 1: Open a connection from your computer to a POP3 mail server
$ telnet pop.domain.ext 110 Trying ???.???.???.???... Connected to pop.domain.ext. Escape character is '^]'. +OK ready
Step 2: Type your Login
> USER username +OK Password required for UserName.
Step 3: Type your Password
> PASS password +OK username has ? visible messages (? hidden) in ????? octets.
Here are the basic POP3 commands, that you can use to manage your incoming Email.
| Command | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| USER [username] | 1st login command | USER Stan +OK Please enter a password |
| PASS [password] | 2nd login command | PASS SeCrEt +OK valid logon |
| QUIT | Logs out and saves any changes | QUIT +OK Bye-bye. |
| STAT | Returns total number of messages and total size | STAT +OK 2 320 |
| LIST | Lists all messages | LIST +OK 2 messages (320 octets) 1 120 2 200 … LIST 2 +OK 2 200 |
| RETR [message] | Retrieves the whole message | RETR 1 +OK 120 octets follow. *** |
| DELE [message] | Deletes the specified message | DELE 2 +OK message deleted |
| NOOP | The POP3 server does nothing, it merely replies with a positive response. | NOOP +OK |
| RSET | Undelete the message if any marked for deletion | RSET +OK maildrop has 2 messages (320 octets) |
| TOP [message] [number] | Returns the headers and number of lines from the message | TOP 1 10 +OK *** |
Article Number: 488
Posted: Mon, Feb 18, 2019 2:53 PM
Last Updated: Mon, Feb 18, 2019 2:53 PM
Online URL: http://kb.ictbanking.net/article.php?id=488