Sony AK Knowledge Center

Back to 1998 when I was learning the SMTP protocol, that moment was very interesting for me to learn something new, one of fundamental protocol on the internet. You can read the details of the SMTP protocol here. SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. Created by Jonathan B Postel, the objective is simple, to transfer mail reliably and efficiently. The SMTP protocol still used today by many e-mail clients software.

Through this article, I will show you how to send simple e-mail using SMTP protocol. You will learn basic SMTP commands to send e-mail.

1. Open your command prompt window.

2. Type telnet [smtp host] [port 25], because I am using XL network, so I will use XL SMTP host. Their SMTP host is xlsmtp.xl.net.id. Standard port number for SMTP is 25. You can search your network SMTP host on the internet.

Connecting to XL SMTP host

3. Type HELO or EHLO command. EHLO command is like HELO command but EHLO command will response with several SMTP abilities on that host.

Sending EHLO command

4. Type MAIL FROM command. This command is to define the sender e-mail address.

Sending MAIL FROM command with my e-mail address as a sender address

5. Type RCPT TO command. This command is to define target or recipient e-mail address.

Send RCPT TO command

6. Type DATA command. DATA command is to start input envelope part and body message part of your e-mail. What is envelope part? For example the e-mail header message that contains From, To, Subject and so on is called an envelope part of your e-mail, then there is single blank line that seperate the envelope data with the body e-mail message. Please see the sample below. At the end, just type single dot (.) command on a single line to finish the DATA command transaction.

Type DATA command

Type the details of envelope part and body message part

Send the single dot (.) to end the DATA command transaction

7. Type QUIT command to quit sending e-mail transaction and your message will be queued for delivery to the recipient address.

Send QUIT command

Simple isn’t? You can try yourself with your ISP SMTP server.

If you have any difficulty, please send comment below or drop us e-mail to info@sony-ak.com.