SMTP

Main protocol  to send and receive email between servers  on the Internet  .

A standard protocol that defines how e-mail messages are transferred between servers. SMTP defines only ASCII text content, necessitating the MIME standard for nontext attachments. (See Internet Messaging ).

(Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) -- The main protocol used to send electronic mail on the Internet.

SMTP consists of a set of rules for how a program sending mail and a program receiving mail should interact.

Almost all Internet email is sent and received by clients and servers using SMTP, thus if one wanted to set up an email server on the Internet one would look for email server software that supports SMTP.

See Also: Client , Server

See: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol

A protocol, defined in STD 10, RFC 821, used to transfer electronic mail between computers. It is a server to server protocol, so other protocols are used to access the messages. See also: Electronic Mail, Post Office Protocol, RFC 822.

(Simple Mail Transfer Protocol). Set of explicit steps that must be used by one Internet computer to connect to another computer to transmit a message to its next stop. The standard protocol on the Internet for transferring electronic mail messages.