telnet smtp Server

Use NetCat instead of telnet. It is better.
NetCat will display both sides of the conversation, the SMTP messages from your mail server and your typed in commands.
Here is where you can get the Windows version of NetCAt:
http://www.atstake.com/research/tools/network_utilities/
(please remove any spaces)

hope this helps

Or if you would prefer not to have to download and install a third party telnet program on every computer you might ever be at, you could also type "set localecho" before you connect to your server, that will echo everything you type back to you.

Also do not forget that even though you are seeing what you are typing, you can not backspace to correct something.

Eric