Smtp Server - How Emails Work

By Author: devis eliot
Total Articles: 37
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Email builds the backbone of the society; a day without emails is just not possible now. It has replaced the snail mails - except few official correspondences, people hardly use traditional mailing system nowadays. Whether it is sharing a thought, contacting with customers, inter-organization communication, invitation or marketing - email is the tool that we use.

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol or SMTP is the technology that controls the emailing system round the world. When you send an email, a lot of technical things take place. Most people just do not bother about the technical aspects of the emailing system. But when you are responsible for the SMTP server of your company account, you have to know about it. Without proper management and maintenance of SMTP server the emailing system of your business may not work as expected. Common problems are delayed email delivery and rejection.

It is always good to know about the history; isn't it? ARPANET was the first emailing system of the world - it was built for internal messaging system of the military department of US. However, the message used to be different ...
... than what we call emails today. In 1971, emails got the shape close to what we have now.

Millions of emails are sent and received every second in this world. Have you ever thought how the email meant for you reach your inbox only? When millions of emails are traversing web servers and other networks, why two emails never get swapped with each other and end up being in a wrong inbox? SMTP is the answer. SMTP defines how a sent message will be treated, to which direction will it be sent and at what address it will be dropped.

How SMTP Server Works

Client Server model is what all the internet transactions follow. A client is a node that is connected to the internet and has a unique IP address - that is internet protocol address. A server is another node that hosts the web pages, responses to the requests sent by the clients and makes the mailing system possible. Many clients and many servers are connected to the internet.

SMTP is the abbreviated form of Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. This is a set of rule that defines and controls all communications on the internet. It is an algorithm that instructs the client and the server what to do. There are different ports attached associated with a server. SMTP server uses Port 25 to receive the sent mails.

Once the server receives a sent mail, it deciphers the request in its own terms. It separates the username and the domain name first. Username is the part that comes before the @ sign. And the domain name is what comes after the @ sign. Based on the domain name it decides where the email should be delivered. Once the domain is decided, it sends the message to the right recipient based on the username.

If you are going to host your emails on SMTP server and you intent to send bulk emails, you need to manage the SMTP properly and configure it accurately.