When you have a website hosting package and you set up an e-mail address, you might consider the option to send out and receive emails for granted, however, that isn't always the case. Sending e-mails is not always included in the website hosting packages that providers offer and an SMTP service is required to be capable to do that. The acronym represents Simple Mail Transfer Protocol and this is the piece of software that allows you to send email messages. If you are using an e-mail application, it creates a connection to the SMTP server. The latter then queries the DNS data of the domain, that is a part of the receiving address to find out which mail server manages its emails. After system data is interchanged, your SMTP server provides the e-mail to the remote IMAP or POP server and the e-mail is finally delivered in the related mailbox. An SMTP server is needed if you are using some sort of contact page form too, so in case you work with a cost-free hosting package, for instance, it's probable that you won't have the ability to make use of such a form as most no charge website hosting companies don't allow outgoing email messages.