Define SMTP Host
SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. The SMTP server you use accepts any email you send and relays it to other SMTP servers across the Internet until your message reaches its destination.
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SMTP Host
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Your SMTP host is the SMTP server that your email provider allows you to access. You often have to identify this server by name in your email client, although if you access email through a Web page with Gmail, Hotmail or a similar service, the provider will have set the connections for you.
Here are some examples of email providers and the SMTP hosts they administer:
Yahoo: smtp.mail.yahoo.com
Gmail: smtp.gmail.com
Comcast: smtp.comcast.net
Verizon: outgoing.verizon.net
Your email program may refer to your SMTP host as "outgoing mail server" or some similar description.
The SMTP process
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The SMTP system of servers takes any email you send and hustles it through the Internet.
When you send an email, the first step it takes is from your email program to your SMTP host. If you are using a Web-based email service, the webserver contacts the SMTP host.
Once your SMTP host has the email, it determines which other SMTP servers, run by other organizations, form a path to the required destination. The path could be as short as one link or as long as necessary.
Your SMTP host relays the message to the next server on the chosen path. Like a bucket brigade, the chain of SMTP servers transfers the message from one to the next until the destination is reached.
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SMTP Error
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You rarely see any reference to your SMTP host as you use it. It's a magnificently invisible process--except when things go wrong. In that case, your computer or device may display an error message of "SMTP Error: Could not connect to SMTP host."
Several complex malfunctions can produce that simple error message. It's not diagnostic at all. It could be that you're not connected to the Internet, that the SMTP host has crashed or that you made a mistake when typing in the SMTP server address. Even a domain-name-system (DNS) server error can produce this seemingly unrelated warning.
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References
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