SUMMARY
This article describes the Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3) commands that are supported in Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5.
Overview
POP3 is a very simple and limited protocol, which includes a set of approximately 11 commands. The following 10 are supported by Exchange Server 5.5:
list
uidl
retr
stat
dele
rset
noop
top
auth
quit
: Exchange Server 5.5 does not support the
apop command.
To test a POP3 connection to an Exchange Server 5.5 computer, establish a telnet connection to port 110 of the server. To do this, type the following at a command prompt
telnet ServerIPAddress 110
where
ServerIPAddress is the IP address of the Exchange Server computer that you want to connect to. Log on to the mailbox that you want by using the
user and
pass commands, and then use any of the supported POP3 commands listed at the beginning of the "Summary" section of this article.
NOTE: A POP3 client uses standard Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) to send messages. The POP3 commands listed in this article function only to
receive messages.
POP3 Commands Supported in Exchange Server 5.5
You can use the following POP3 commands with Exchange Server 5.5.
User
Use the
user command to specify the name of the user account that you use to log on. The
user command takes the following syntax:
user UserName
-or-
user Domain\UserName
If the mailbox name is different from the user name, use the following syntax:
user Domain\UserName\MailboxName
Pass
Use the
pass command to specify the password of the user account that you use to log on. The
pass command uses the following syntax:
List
Use the
list command to display the identifier number and the size (in bytes) of messages in the mailbox, or to display the number and size of a particular message. The
list command uses the following syntax, where
n is the message number that is returned by the
list command:
Uidl
Use the
uidl command to return a numeric listing of all messages in the mailbox and their associated unique IDs, or the unique ID for a particular message. The
uidl command uses the following syntax, where
n is the message number (as returned by the
list command) of the uidl that you want to view:
Retr
Use the
retr command to retrieve a message from the server. Note that you cannot use this command to retrieve a message that is marked as deleted. The
retr command uses the following syntax, where
n is the message number that is returned by the
list command:
Stat
The
stat command returns the total number of messages in the mailbox and the total size (in bytes) of the messages. Note that you cannot use this command to display more information about individual messages. To do this, you must use the
list or
retr commands (as appropriate).
Dele
Use the
dele command to mark a message for deletion. When you mark a message for deletion, the message is deleted after you use the
quit command to disconnect the client from the server. In a situation where the connection is cut off unexpectedly, the messages are not deleted. The
dele command uses the following syntax, where
n is the message number that is returned by the
list command:
Rset
Use the
rset command to unmark all messages that are marked for deletion.
Noop
The
noop command refers to "
no op"eration. Although this command does not perform any action, if the command is successful, the server replies with a positive response (OK+). You can use this command to test whether the server is online and receiving client requests.
Top
Use the
top command to display the message header and a particular number of lines of the message. The
top command uses the following syntax, where
x is the message number that you want to view, and
y is the number of lines in the message that you want to display:
When you use this command, the server returns the headers for the message, followed by a blank line, and then the first
y number of lines of the message.
Auth
The
auth command is an Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) command that is part of the POP3 specification, as detailed in Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Request for Comments (RFC) 1734. It permits you to use alternative IMAP4 authorization mechanisms.
Quit
Use the
quit command to quit the current telnet session and delete any messages that are marked for deletion.