SMTP (Simple mail transfer
protocol)
By
ATTIA AGHA
SMTP
• SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol.
• SMTP is a set of communication guidelines that allow software to transmit
an electronic mail over the internet is called Simple Mail Transfer Protocol.
• It is a program used for sending messages to other computer users based
on e-mail addresses.
• It provides a mail exchange between users on the same or different
computers, and it also supports:
• It can send a single message to one or more recipients.
• Sending message can include text, voice, video or graphics.
• It can also send the messages on networks outside the internet.
CONT.
• The main purpose of SMTP is used to set up communication rules
between servers. The servers have a way of identifying themselves
and announcing what kind of communication they are trying to
perform. They also have a way of handling the errors such as incorrect
email address. For example, if the recipient address is wrong, then
receiving server reply with an error message of some kind.
COMPONENTS OF SMTP
COMPONENTS CONT..
• First, we will break the SMTP client
and SMTP server into two
components such as user agent (UA)
and mail transfer agent (MTA). The
user agent (UA) prepares the
message, creates the envelope and
then puts the message in the
envelope. The mail transfer agent
(MTA) transfers this mail across the
internet
• SMTP allows a more complex
system by adding a relaying system.
Instead of just having one MTA at
sending side and one at receiving
side, more MTAs can be added,
acting either as a client or server to
relay the email.
COMPONENTS CONT…
• The relaying system without
TCP/IP protocol can also be
used to send the emails to
users, and this is achieved
by the use of the mail
gateway. The mail gateway
is a relay MTA that can be
used to receive an email
WORKING ON SMTP
1. Composition of Mail: A user sends an e-mail by composing an electronic
mail message using a Mail User Agent (MUA). Mail User Agent is a
program which is used to send and receive mail. The message contains
two parts: body and header. The body is the main part of the message
while the header includes information such as the sender and recipient
address. The header also includes descriptive information such as the
subject of the message. In this case, the message body is like a letter
and header is like an envelope that contains the recipient's address.
2. Submission of Mail: After composing an email, the mail client then
submits the completed e-mail to the SMTP server by using SMTP on
TCP port 25.
WORKING ON SMTP CONT..
3. Delivery of Mail: E-mail addresses contain two parts: username of
the recipient and domain name. For example, [email protected], where
“attia" is the username of the recipient and "gmail.com" is the domain
name.
If the domain name of the recipient's email address is different from
the sender's domain name, then MSA will send the mail to the Mail
Transfer Agent (MTA). To relay the email, the MTA will find the target
domain. It checks the MX record from Domain Name System to obtain
the target domain. The MX record contains the domain name and IP
address of the recipient's domain. Once the record is located, MTA
connects to the exchange server to relay the message.
WORKING ON SMTP CONT….
4. Receipt and Processing of Mail: Once the incoming message is
received, the exchange server delivers it to the incoming server (Mail
Delivery Agent) which stores the e-mail where it waits for the user to
retrieve it.
5. Access and Retrieval of Mail: The stored email in MDA can be
retrieved by using MUA (Mail User Agent). MUA can be accessed by
using login and password
Thank you
