When you've got a website hosting plan and you set up an email address, you might consider the option to send and receive emails for granted, but in fact, that isn't always the case. Sending e-mails is not always included in the hosting packages that service providers feature and an SMTP service is necessary to be capable to do that. The acronym represents Simple Mail Transfer Protocol and that is the software application that allows you to send out e-mails. If you use an e-mail app, it creates a connection to the SMTP server. The latter then searches the DNS data of the domain name, which is a part of the receiving address to find out what mail server manages its e-mails. After some system information is swapped, your SMTP server delivers the e-mail to the remote IMAP or POP server and the email is finally delivered in the corresponding mailbox. An SMTP server is required if you work with some kind of contact page too, so if you work with a cost-free hosting package, for example, it's probable that you won't have the ability to use this type of form as many no charge website hosting service providers do not allow outgoing email messages.