Using Telnet to delete POP3 e-mail

You have an Internet e-mail address via a POP3-account,
you most probably use Outlook Express as e-mail client,
but now somebody has filled up your e-mail mailbox with HUGE messages
( MegaBytes of garbage ).
For Outlook Express to delete these messages in the mailbox on the POP3
server, you first have to download them ( if you use an e-mail client like
Pegasus Mail“, you could make “File, Selective Mail Download” allowing you
to delete messages while they are still on the POP3-eMail server)
.
a possible solution: use TELNET (one of the utilities installed by all Windows versions
together with the TCP/IP protocol)
, start it up by typing “telnet” in the RUN-menu:

TELNET:
To see what you type
yourself, select in the
menu: “Terminal” the
Preferences” and
put a checkmark on
Local Echo
Then, to connect to
your POP3 email server,
select from the menu:
Connect“, then
Remote System“,
define as Host-name the
name of your POP3
-eMail server (as given
to you by your ISP)

and enter as port “110”
after a short delay, your
POP3-email server
should reply with
“+OK” and a welcome
message.
Enter now:
user <userID>“, where
<user-ID> is YOUR
email User Identification.
Enter then:
pass <password>“,
using your e-mail
password

using the command “list“, you can see for each e-mail the size of the message.
Typing the command “retr x“, where “x” is the message number, displays the
e-mail message in the telnet window, the command “top x y” will display for
message “x” only the message header and the first Y lines of the message.
With the command “dele x“, you can delete a message from the e-mail server.
Type “quit” to terminate the connection.

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