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Testing the availability of email servers using Telnet

Valid for Mail Basic and Mail Business.

This article explains how to use Telnet to check whether you can access the IONOS email servers from your PC. You can find information about Telnet in the following Wikipedia article: Telnet

Enable the Telnet client in Windows 10

On Windows operating systems, the Telnet client has been disabled by default since Windows Vista. The following guide explains how to enable the Telnet client in Windows 10:

  • Open the Control Panel and click on Programs.

  • Click on Programs and Features.

  • Click on Turn Windows features on or off.

  • Tick the box next to Telnet Client.

  • Click OK.

Test the Telnet connection to the IONOS IMAP, POP3 and SMTP servers

To test the Telnet connection to the IONOS IMAP, POP3 and SMTP servers, enter the command telnet, followed by the server name and the server port, in the Command Prompt or Terminal. You can find instructions on how to open the Command Prompt or Terminal in the following article: Opening the Command Prompt or Terminal

Below are some examples of what a successful Telnet connection to our IMAP, POP3 and SMTP servers looks like on Windows.

Telnet connection to the IMAP server

telnet imap.ionos.com 143

* OK IMAP server ready H mimapX XXXXX

Telnet connection to the POP3 server

telnet pop.ionos.com 110

+OK POP server ready H mibapX

Telnet connection to the SMTP server

telnet smtp.ionos.com 587

220 smtp.ionos.com (mreuX) Welcome to the Nemesis ESMTP server

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