When you've got a cloud hosting package and you create an e-mail address, you might consider the option to send out and receive messages for granted, however, that isn't always the case. Sending email messages isn't always included in the web hosting packages that providers offer and an SMTP service is required to be able to do that. The acronym means Simple Mail Transfer Protocol and this is the software application that permits you to send out email messages. If you use an e-mail app, it connects to the SMTP server. The latter then requests the DNS records of the domain, which is a part of the receiving address to find out which mail server deals with its e-mails. After some system information is interchanged, your SMTP server provides the e-mail to the remote IMAP or POP server and the email is finally delivered in the related mailbox. An SMTP server is needed if you are using some kind of contact page also, so in case you work with a free hosting package, for example, it is likely that you will not have the ability to use this type of form as most no charge hosting service providers do not allow outgoing emails.