Manual Email

So I know what you're thinking: why would anyone want to send email without using an email client like Thunderbird? Well, it's fun to see how email servers work on the lowest level. It's also a good tool to test your smtp server and make sure it is returning the correct responses. Here is a sample conversation. I bet you can figure it out: 

> telnet mail.udel.edu 25
Trying 128.175.1.2...
Connected to mail.udel.edu.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 md1.nss.udel.edu ESMTP Mirapoint 3.8.2-GA; Wed, 17 Jan 2007 19:49:26 -0500 (EST)
HELO your_domain_name.com
250 md1.nss.udel.edu Hello 123-123.nss.udel.edu [128.175.123.123], pleased to meet you
MAIL FROM:you@hostname.com
250 you@hostname.com... Sender ok
RCPT TO:them@someplace_else.com
250 them@someplace_else.com... Recipient ok
DATA
354 Enter mail, end with "." on a line by itself
This is my message. I'll end it with a line break, a period, and I'll press enter to confirm.
.
250 CSU83955 Message accepted for delivery
quit
221 md1.nss.udel.edu closing connection
Connection closed by foreign host.
>
tux