How to Use Telnet to Verify Basic POP3 Connectivity in Exchange 2007

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Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 will reach end of support on April 11, 2017. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.

 

This topic explains how to use Telnet to verify that Post Office Protocol (POP3) can be used to connect to a mailbox that is on a computer that is running Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. The Exchange server has the Client Access server role installed. At a command prompt, type the Telnet commands that are described in this topic. The POP3 connection is verified by the response that you receive to the Telnet commands.

Before You Begin

Configure the POP3 virtual server to use the plain text logon type. To do this, start the Exchange Management Shell on the Exchange server. In the Exchange Management Shell, type the following command, and then press ENTER:

Set-POPSettings -LoginType "plaintextlogin"

To perform this procedure, the account that you use must be delegated the following:

  • Membership in the Enterprise Administrators group

For more information about permissions, delegating roles, and the rights that are required to administer Exchange 2007, see Permission Considerations.

Procedure

To use Telnet to verify POP3 connectivity

  1. To start a Telnet session from a command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER:

    Telnet <IP address of Client Access Server (Exchange)> <Port # 110>

    For example, type Telnet 127.0.0.1 110.

    If the command is successful, you receive the following response from the server:

    +OK Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 POP3 service ready

  2. To log on to the mailbox and to start communication, type the following command, and then press ENTER:

    USER <account name>

    If the command is successful, you receive the following response from the server:

    +OK

  3. To specify the password of the user account that you use to log on, type the following command and then press ENTER:

    PASS <Password>

    If the command is successful, you receive the following response from the server:

    +OK User Successfully Logged on

  4. To display the identifier number and the size (in bytes) of messages in the mailbox, type one of the following commands, and then press ENTER:

    LIST or LIST #

    If the command is successful, you receive a list of messages. The message number is the first number on the left. For example, the server responds with a list that resembles the following:

    +OK

    1 373

    2 388

    3 388

  5. To retrieve a message from the server, type the following command, and then press ENTER:

    RETR <message_number>

    If the command is successful, the message that you selected by using the message number is displayed in the response from the server.

  6. To log off from the POP3 session with the Exchange server, type the following command, and then press ENTER:

    QUIT

    If the command is successful, you receive the following response from the server:

    + OK Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 POP3 server signing off

For More Information

For more information about Telnet, see Telnet Operations Guide.