wrote:

>in order to be able to send an email, do I have to specify and SMTP gateway?
>how would a server know that an email should be relayed to a specified
>server? Thanks.

"Jeff Cochran" <jeff.nospam@zina.com> wrote in message
news:4310449b.891847031@msnews.microsoft.com...
> On Sat, 20 Aug 2005 11:50:11 -0600, "Frank" <frank673@hotmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>>in order to be able to send an email, do I have to specify and SMTP
>>gateway?
>>how would a server know that an email should be relayed to a specified
>>server? Thanks.
>
> A SMTP "gateway" is just a SMTP server that accepts mail for a range
> of IP addresse4s, there's nothing special about it. And yes, to send
> mail you have to specify a SMTP server. As for how it knows where to
> send it, that's magic. :)
>
> Okay, that's what DNS does, in conjunction with your SMTP server and
> mail client. It's like the post office. How does the mailman know
> what house to deliver to? Yep, the address on the message itself.
> How does he know that he delivers to the Smith's house on Sesame
> Street if there's no address? That's right, he looks up the address
> somewhere.
>
> Same thing only faster and electronic.
>
> Jeff

wrote:

>"Jeff Cochran" <jeff.nospam@zina.com> wrote in message
>news:4310449b.891847031@msnews.microsoft.com...
>> On Sat, 20 Aug 2005 11:50:11 -0600, "Frank" <frank673@hotmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>in order to be able to send an email, do I have to specify and SMTP
>>>gateway?
>>>how would a server know that an email should be relayed to a specified
>>>server? Thanks.
>>
>> A SMTP "gateway" is just a SMTP server that accepts mail for a range
>> of IP addresse4s, there's nothing special about it. And yes, to send
>> mail you have to specify a SMTP server. As for how it knows where to
>> send it, that's magic. :)
>>
>> Okay, that's what DNS does, in conjunction with your SMTP server and
>> mail client. It's like the post office. How does the mailman know
>> what house to deliver to? Yep, the address on the message itself.
>> How does he know that he delivers to the Smith's house on Sesame
>> Street if there's no address? That's right, he looks up the address
>> somewhere.
>>
>> Same thing only faster and electronic.
>>
>> Jeff
>
>Thank you for the answer. If I understand it correctly, If I send an email
>to an adress in lets say hotmail.com then it would lookup the server in the
>DNS and send it directly. right? If not, and if I have to specify an SMTP
>gateway then I should contact my internet provider to tell me what their
>SMTP server is. Otherwise I would get the error message "550 Relaying
>denied" that I am getting right now. Thanks.