Say HELO to your mail server

Recently we were working on a problem of email not being sent out from a SAP server. We checked all the settings in SCOT, SOST etc and they were looking good (If you don’t know SAP transaction SCOT, SOST don’t worry I am not going to discuss them :-)

So we decided to check whether server (on which SAP is hosted) is able to connect to mail server and send mail. Following are steps you can use for testing/sending mail by doing telnet to mail server:-

**MAIL SERVER NAME: Mail.xyz.com
** Command which you need to type are in blue.
1. Telnet to mail server on port 25. port 25 is being used for SMTP service.
telnet Mail.xyz.com 25

2. Once connected type HELO
And mail server will greet you :)

3. Then type MAIL FROM:
Note that generally mail server don’t verify sender’s email id so even if you have typed something rubbish it will work.

4.Now type RCPT TO: for informing mail server about the recipient. Please be sure to type correct email address out here.

5.Time to enter data for email. Type DATA .
Mail server will generally will provide you details on how to terminate your message ,usually it is a ”.” mark, after you have typed DATA. Write your message. Once you have finished the message with the termination symbol you will get a message of mail being sent.


Hurry you have sent a mail using telnet… go for a coffee break now….