If you have a website hosting plan and you set up an e-mail address, you might take the option to send and receive emails for granted, however, that isn't always true. Sending e-mails is not necessarily a part of the website hosting packages that providers have and an SMTP service is required to be able to do that. The acronym signifies Simple Mail Transfer Protocol and this is the set of scripts that permits you to send emails. If you are using an e-mail program, it creates a connection to the SMTP server. The latter then queries the DNS data of the domain, which is a part of the receiving address to find out what email server deals with its emails. After system information is exchanged, your SMTP server provides the message to the remote IMAP or POP server and then the email is finally delivered in the related mailbox. An SMTP server is required if you use some kind of contact page form also, so if you use a no charge hosting package, as an example, it's probable that you will not have the ability to use this type of form since many cost-free website hosting providers don't allow outgoing email messages.