When you have a web hosting account and you create an email address, you may take the option to send and receive messages for granted, but in fact, this is not always true. Sending emails isn't necessarily a part of the hosting packages that companies will offer you and an SMTP service is needed to be able to do that. The abbreviation represents Simple Mail Transfer Protocol and this is the piece of software that enables you to send out e-mails. If you work with an e-mail program, it connects to the SMTP server. The latter then searches the DNS records of the domain, that is a part of the receiving address to find out which email server deals with its emails. After system information is swapped, 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 form as well, so if you work with a no charge hosting plan, as an example, it's probable that you will not be able to use such a form since many no charge hosting providers don't allow outgoing email messages.