How E-Mail Works?

The first thing to be done is to type the message and the e-mail address of the recipient.
Once the ‘send’ button is clicked, this e-mail is sent through the telephone line after it’s
conversion into analog signal by the modem. The e-mail message arrives at our service
provider’s server. If the server recognizes the e-mail address as valid, the mail will be sent either
through the network of the service provider or through internet gateway to the service provider
of the recipient.

To send e-mail, we need a connection to the internet and access to a mail server that forwards the mail. The standard protocol used for sending internet e-mail is called SMTP, short for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. It works in conjunction with POP servers. POP stands for Post Office Protocol.

 When we send an e-mail message, our computer routes it to an SMTP server. The server
looks at the e-mail address (similar to the address on an envelope), then forwards it to the
recipient’s mail server. Once the message arrives at the destination mail server, It’s stored until
the addressee retrieves it. We can send e-mail anywhere in the world to anyone who has an email
address.

With the advent of MIME, which stands for multipurpose Internet Mail Extension, and
other types of encoding schemes, we can not only send messages electronically, but we can also
send formatted documents, photos, sound files, and video files.