SMTP: What Is It?

SMTP, short for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, is the core protocol for sending email over the Internet, from the sender to the SMTP server and between email servers. Though perhaps not as simple as its name suggests, this robust text-based protocol is the primary transmission medium of Internet mail and forms the backbone of the Internet's messaging system, taking care of transferring mail from user to user across TCP/IP networks. Indeed, SMTP happens to be the key component of the TCP/IP electronic mail system, and the sole part of the system that does not utilize SMTP for the final retrieval of the delivered email by recipient (this is performed by a retrieval protocol).

Email servers and mail transfer agents (MTA) utilize SMTP to both send and receive mail. But as the message completes the route from the initial outgoing email server to the destination server, it is retrieved by the recipient's email client via one of the standard mail retrieval protocols (POP or IMAP) that are complementary to SMTP (which handles only outgoing and not incoming email).

Additionally, SMTP is employed to submit email from an email client application to an email server for further relaying. For this reason, both the outgoing (SMTP) server and the incoming (POP or IMAP) server generally need to be specified in the configuration of an email application. Emails clients (a particular kind of user agent) are normally configured to submit all email to a single MTA, specified in the configuration parameter "outgoing mail server."Under SMTP, the mail sender "talks" to the mail receiver via SMTP commands (there are over a dozen of them, each of which contains four letters) and transfers requisite data over the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) layer. SMTP relay begins by specifying the sender, then the recipient(s) of an email message, and once their existence has been verified, the message body itself is transferred. (The availability of an SMTP connection may be tested easily by telnetting to port 25 of a remote SMTP server.)

Benefits of a Private SMTP Server?

If you are currently experiencing any of the following issues, you can take advantage of our many years of expertise as Mail servers specialists:

Increasing email bounces and email delivery delays

IP blacklisting

Disruption of email sending and communication with customers

Open relay problems and spamming from your email server by hackers

Non SPF and DKIM compliant SMTP servers

 

Our SMTP Server Installation Service Features

Installation of a secure and profesional SMTP server (Postfix Based MTA)

Free Web based SMTP Admin Panel to add/delete/edit/extend sub SMTP accounts for multiple SMTP servers

We can convert a VPS/Dedicated Centos based Linux server to a full private SMTP server with DKIM/SPF support

SPF support

DKIM support

Forward Confirmed reverse DNS support

Installation of a full featured SPF/DKIM/Domain keys compliant SMTP server for efficient email delivery

Encryption of SMTP traffic using the STARTTLS encryption extension

Incoming POP3/IMAP Email server support

Secure SASL username/password authentication (Hacker Proof)

Supports unlimited email sending

Supports unlimited SMTP user accounts creation on the same SMTP server

SSL enabled SMTP server for secure connections

Works perfectly with all bulk mailers applications such as Atomic Mail Sender, SendBlaster etc

Free after-setup test results and security checks reports

Free enhanced email deliverability guide and tips

Free 3 months support

 

About SPF and DKIM

SPF records are also DNS records that some receiving mail hosts use to verify the authenticity of mail. The SPF record provides a list of addresses (IPs and DNS names) that are allowed to send mail on behalf of a particular domain. SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) are two methods to help indentify email which is likely not SPAM. Both SPF and DKIM attempt to provide information to receiving SMTP servers about whether or not a particular email message is authentic. SPFv1 uses a very simple approach where a domain’s DNS server provides a root level TXT record that supplies information about SMTP mail servers that are permitted to originate domain email. Domain Keys is a type of email verification system using public key cryptography. DKIM uses a more complex digital signature on each message (information about which is stored in a sub-domain in domains DNS containing self-signed keys).

 

About Forward Confirmed Reverse DNS

Forward-confirmed reverse DNS (FCrDNS) is a situation where a given IP address has forward (name-to-address) and reverse (address-to-name) DNS entries that match each other. That is to say, an IP is said to have FCrDNS if it has a forward DNS (name -> IP) and reverse DNS (IP -> name) that match. This is very useful in SPAM filtering to ensure that the mail originated at the domain. This works because Spammers cannot normally forge FCrDNS if they are sending from zombie computers. Most ISPs use FCrDNS lookup to authenticate the IP address the connection is coming from and If the FCrDNS lookup fails, the incoming IP address goes to a blacklist.

 

About STARTTLS SMTP Encryption Extension

SMTP sessions conducted over a standard TCP/IP channel are vulnerable to eavesdropping because the unencoded transmission can be easily intercepted. To protect SMTP communications, SMTP servers can be configured to use the STARTTLS extension, to provide privacy and authentication.

STARTTLS has the following advantages:

Authentication: client and server of a SMTP connection can be identified

privacy/confidentiality: the transmission of an e-mail between a client and server utilizingSTARTTLS can not be read and retranslated into plaintext provided a sufficiently secure ciphersuite has been negotiated.

Integrity: the plaintext of an e-mail between a client and server utilizing STARTTLS can not be modified by an adversary provided a sufficiently secure ciphersuite has been negotiated.

Our Requirements for SMTP Server Setup

Centos 5 based VPS or dedicated server

SSH Root login

Raw server without any control panel

Reverse DNS of server IP

 

What You Will Get

After the SMTP server setup, we will provide you with the SMTP server including incoming POP3/IMAP email server details as follows:

Host

Port

Username

Password

 

PRICING

$29.00/VPS or Server (One-Time Installation Fee)

After completing your order and providing the server/VPS SSH details, you will receive the details of the SMTP server within 2-4 hrs by email.