Behind the Scenes: SMTP Server.

What the Heck is this?

An SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) server is an application whose primary purpose is to send, receive, and/or relay outgoing mail between email senders and receivers.

An SMTP server will have an address (or addresses) that can be set by the mail client or application that you are using and is generally formatted as smtp.theserveraddress.com. (ie. Gmail’s SMTP server address is smtp.gmail.com). You would generally find your SMTP server address in the account or settings section of your mail client.

See, when you send an email, the SMTP server processes your email, decides which server to send the message to, and relays the message to that server. The recipient’s inbox service provider, such as Gmail or Outlook then downloads the message and places it in the recipient’s inbox.

SMTP servers require authentication in the form of a username, password, SMTP server address, ports, and protocol (typically SSL or TLS).

Are SMTP servers important?

Without an SMTP server, your email wouldn’t make it to its destination. Once you hit “send,” your email transforms into a string of code that is then sent to the SMTP server. The SMTP server is able to process that code and pass on the message. If the SMTP server wasn’t there to process the message, it would be lost in translation.

Additionally, the SMTP server verifies that the outgoing email is from an active account, acting as the first safeguard in protecting your inbox from illegitimate email. It also will send the email back to the sender if it can’t be delivered. This informs the sender that they have the wrong email address or that their email is being blocked by the receiving server.