What is SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) / Explaining SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol).

 

SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is a protocol for sending email messages between servers on the internet. It is a standard communication protocol used by email servers to transmit and receive email messages. SMTP is one of the core protocols of the Internet, and it is widely used by email services, including Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook.com.

SMTP is a text-based protocol that works by establishing a connection between two mail servers, where one server sends the email message and the other server receives the message. The email message is sent through the internet in a series of steps or handshakes, where each step is responsible for verifying the authenticity of the message and ensuring its successful transmission.

SMTP has a client-server architecture, where the sender of the email message is the client, and the recipient server is the server. When a client wants to send an email message, it first connects to the SMTP server on the recipient's domain. The sender then sends the email message to the recipient server through the SMTP server. The recipient server receives the email message and stores it in the recipient's mailbox.

SMTP uses TCP/IP to transport email messages over the internet. TCP is used to establish a reliable connection between two mail servers, and IP is used to transfer the message from the sender to the recipient server. SMTP also uses a set of commands that are used to negotiate the transfer of email messages between servers.

SMTP is a relatively simple protocol that allows for the efficient and reliable transfer of email messages over the internet. However, SMTP does have some security vulnerabilities, such as email spoofing and spamming. To address these issues, additional email authentication protocols such as SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) have been developed to improve the security of email messages sent via SMTP.

1. Email
2. Server
3. Protocol
4. TCP/IP
5. Internet
6. SMTP Commands
7. Email Authentication
8. Mailbox
9. Reliability
10. Security
11. SPF
12. DKIM
13. DMARC
14. Message Transfer Agent
15. Message Delivery Agent