Telnet Commands

If you are choosing to use Telnet to access your email (primarily to delete messages from the mail server), you will need to know a few commands to perform some basic operations.

USER userid
This must be the first command after the connection is made. Supply your e-mail userid (not the full e-mail address). Example: USER john1

PASS password
This must be the next command after USER. Supply your e-mail password.

STAT
The response to this is: +OK #msgs #bytes Where #msgs is the number of messages in the mail box and #bytes is the total bytes used by all messages.
Sample response:

+OK 3 345910

LIST
The response to this lists a line for each message with its number and size in bytes.
Sample response:

+OK 3 messages
1 1205
2 305
3 344400

RETR msg#
This displays msg# to the telnet screen.
Example: RETR 2

TOP msg# #lines
This lists the header for msg# and the first #lines of the message text. For example, TOP 1 0 would list just the headers for message 1, where as TOP 1 5 would list the headers and first 5 lines of the message text.

DELE msg#
This marks message number msg# for deletion from the server. This is the way to get rid of a problem causing message. It is not actually deleted until the QUIT command is issued. Example: DELE 3

RSET
This resets (unmarks) any messages previously marked for deletion in this session so that the QUIT command will not delete them.

QUIT
This deletes any messages marked for deletion, and then logs you off of the mail server. This is the last command to use. This does not disconnect you from Internet America, just the mailbox.

Please email our technical support team if you have any questions.
By Telephone: 1-800-232-4335 Toll-free