One of the the first steps to trouble shoot issues with sending emails is to make sure your PC can communicate with the SMTP server. While pinging the server may or may not tell you if the server is accessible, using telnet to access SMTP port 25 will.

Steps to telnet to SMTP Port 25:

1. Open the command prompt, on Windows XP click on the Start Button, then select Run. Next enter "cmd" into the run box and click OK. Note, on Windows Vista you can click in the Start Button and then select Search. Enter "cmd" in the search box and the press enter.

2. In the command prompt window enter the following telnet command. Note, replace hostname with the name of the email server. You can also use the IP address of the server.
> telnet hostname 25

3. You should now see a welcome banner that will say "220 hostname... ready" similar. If you get a message that telnet could not connect to the host then your PC cannot communicate with the email server. This can be due to issues with the local or remote network, the internet, or the server could be down. At this point you will need to contact our network administrator or began trouble shooting the issue further.

4. If you get the 220 you can continue with sending the email. Next enter the helo command.
> helo your_email_domain.com

5. Enter the mail from command to let the server know who the email is from.
> mail from:user@your_email_domain.com

6. Next enter the rcpt to command to tell the server who the email is going to.
> rcpt to:user@rcpt_email_domain.com

7. Now enter the data command to began the email message.
> data

8.Type up your message. When done, enter a period "." on the last line of the message to tell the server to end data mode and send the email.
> Your Message, Blah, Blah
> .

At this point you should get a message id from the email server indicating that it has accepted the email from you and in a few moments the email should be delivered. If you get a message saying you do not have permission to relay or send email then the mail from address you used is not allowed to send emails from this email server. If you get any errors entering the above commands verify that you entered then correctly. Also not, using telnet to send emails can be unforgiving to input errors. If you put the command in wrong you cannot simply backspace it out to correct it, you will need to re-enter the command.