How do I test the connection to my mail server?

The following article details how to test the connection to your mail server. When an email is sent or received using a third party application, the information is sent across a specific route called a port. If the port being used is blocked, either by a firewall or your Internet Service Provider (ISP), information cannot be sent. The default port for receiving email (POP3) is 110. The default port for sending email (SMTP) is 25. If you are having trouble sending and/or receiving email, we recommend you test each applicable port to see if it's being blocked.

To test receiving email, please follow these steps:

1. On your local machine, open a command prompt.
2. Within the prompt type telnet mail.yourdomainname.com 110

If the port is not blocked, you will see a message similar to the following:

+OK POP# server ready

If the port is being blocked, you will see a Connect failed message:

To unblock the port, either open it in your firewall, or contact your network administrator or ISP and ask them to unblock port 110.

To test sending email, please follow these steps:

1. On your local machine, open a command prompt.
2. Within the prompt type telnet mail.yourdomainname.com 25

If the port is not blocked, you will see a message similar to the following:

220 mail#.safesecureweb.com

If the port is being blocked, you will see a Connect failed message:

To unblock the port, either open it in your firewall, or contact your network administrator or ISP and ask them to unblock port 25. As an alternative, you can attempt to use port 50 to send email. To check port 50, please repeat the above steps, replacing 25 with 50.