When you have a cloud hosting package and you set up an email address, you may consider the option to send out and receive messages for granted, but in fact, this isn't always true. Sending email messages is not always part of the web hosting packages that companies feature and an SMTP service is necessary to be capable to do that. The abbreviation signifies Simple Mail Transfer Protocol and that is the software application that allows you to send emails. If you work with an e-mail application, it creates a connection to the SMTP server. The latter then searches the DNS data of the domain name, which is a part of the receiving address to find out what mail server deals with its e-mails. After system data is exchanged, your SMTP server provides the email to the remote IMAP or POP server and the e-mail is finally delivered in the related mailbox. An SMTP server is required if you use some kind of contact form also, so in case you use a no charge hosting plan, as an example, it's probable that you will not be able to use such a form as many free of charge web hosting providers don't allow outgoing e-mails.