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I want to send an email to an specific email server. The MX records of the domain do NOT point to this server, but the receiving server is configured to receive emails of the domain under test, let's say [email protected]

(Background: This is a migration scenario. We are using the old mailserver and want to switch to the new one as soon it is working as expected)

Now, when I use my Linux/Mac/Windows client from a dial up line, how can I directly send an email to the MX? I guess most email servers are configured to not accept emails from dial-up lines, right?

I cannot use the SMTP server of my provider, because this server would send my emails to the official MX of this domain which points to somewhere else.

How can I send test mails?

Thank you, schube

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  • Depends on your client and local MTA. If you have a client which specifies the SMTP server you can just point it to the alternative server address. If your mail generating client not use SMTP but calls the local mail delivéry system you just have to reconfigure this to use another host. In the easy case you would sent all mail tomthat server (the config option for that is called smart host). But you can also defining routing rules where you define for a list of domains a target server.
    – eckes
    May 22, 2017 at 11:29
  • If it is only about a single test mail you can also use telnet or configure a new mail server account in your mail client.
    – eckes
    May 22, 2017 at 11:30
  • For simple testing (a bit more convenient than using telnet) SWAKS (Swiss Army Knife for SMTP) is your friend - jetmore.org/john/code/swaks
    – Paul Haldane
    May 22, 2017 at 11:34
  • I could/want to use Swaks, but there I have to provide an SMTP server. This SMTP server would use the official MX records for mail delivery.
    – schube
    May 22, 2017 at 11:34
  • @Paul: You were 5 seconds faster :-) But the problem, how do I tell swaks to use the new MX server? I just can specify the SMTP server.
    – schube
    May 22, 2017 at 11:35

3 Answers 3

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If you have the following setup...

Existing MX for example.com has smtp1.example.com as the server for the domain.

The new SMTP server is smtp2.example.com (and that's what will be in the domain's MX set after migration).

You can send a test message to the new server using

swaks --to [email protected] --server smtp2.example.com

If you've got multiple new SMTP servers, just test them one by one.

If the thing you're trying to test is a new DNS zone with new MX records then that should just be a matter of changing the client's DNS config to point at the the DNS servers.

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  • Thank you! I had the missconception that I have to use somehow a username/password and didn't know how to use it. This was an info from the the server administrator which totally confused my. Everything works find now!
    – schube
    May 22, 2017 at 11:55
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If the new server is already configured to handle authentication and can relay external mail, nothing would prevent you from configuring the new new server in your mail client. MX entries are not really relevant for this case.

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  • Authentification is the point I do not get. The new server has a POP3/IMAP postbox with [email protected] Now I want to send an email from [email protected] to [email protected] Which auth data should I use? Because the new mailserver does not know mydomain.com, it should just accept mails from ist. Thank you!
    – schube
    May 22, 2017 at 11:32
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You can use this free online web application to send a test email to a specific Recipient Email Address, at a specific SMTP Server from a specified Sender Email address.

It also outputs the SMTP log for the transaction.

Wormly: Test your SMTP Mail Server (MX)

I just used it to do exactly what you wanted to do and it worked.

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