Short for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, a protocol for sending e-mail messages between servers. Most e-mail systems that send mail over the Internet use SMTP to send messages from one server to another; the messages can then be retrieved with an e-mail client using either POP or IMAP. In addition, SMTP is generally used to send messages from a mail client to a mail server. This is why you need to specify both the POP or IMAP server and the SMTP server when you configure your e-mail application.
SMTP uses a style of asymmetric request-response protocol popular in the early 1980s, and still seen occasionally, most often in mail protocols. The protocol is designed to be equally useful to either a computer or a human, though not too forgiving of the human. From the server's viewpoint, a clear set of commands is provided and well-documented in the RFC. For the human, all the commands are clearly terminated by newlines and a HELP command lists all of them. From the sender's viewpoint, the command replies always take the form of text lines, each starting with a three-digit code identifying the result of the operation, a continuation character to indicate another lines following, and then arbitrary text information designed to be informative to a human.
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