{"id":1989,"date":"2012-05-03T14:40:24","date_gmt":"2012-05-03T14:40:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/email-server\/"},"modified":"2017-12-12T15:10:03","modified_gmt":"2017-12-12T15:10:03","slug":"email-server","status":"publish","type":"definition","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1660\/email-server-email","title":{"rendered":"Email Server"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span id=\"what_does_email_server_mean\">What Does Email Server Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>An email server, or simply mail server, is an application or computer in a network whose sole purpose is to act as a virtual post office. The server stores incoming mail for distribution to local users and sends out outgoing messages. This uses a client-server application model to send and receive messages using Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP).<\/p>\n<p>An email server may also be known as a mail or message transer agent.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"techopedia_explains_email_server\">Techopedia Explains Email Server<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>An email server is a computer with mail transfer agent (MTA) functions. Mail is exchanged between email servers running special software, which is built around standardized protocols for handling messages and their varied (multimedia) content.<\/p>\n<p>An email server receives mail from another MTA, a mail user agent (MUA) or a mail submission agent (MSA) with the details of the transmission being defined by SMTP. When an MTA receives a mail and the recipient of the mail is not hosted locally, the mail is forwarded to another MTA. Every time this happens the MTA adds a &#8220;received&#8221; trace header on the top header of the message. This shows all the MTAs that have handled the message before it arrived in the recipient\u2019s inbox. This useful feature allows administrators to see whether an optimal path was taken.<\/p>\n<p>Many web hosts also offer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/hosting\/best-email-hosting\">email hosting services<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Does Email Server Mean? An email server, or simply mail server, is an application or computer in a network whose sole purpose is to act as a virtual post office. The server stores incoming mail for distribution to local users and sends out outgoing messages. This uses a client-server application model to send and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"definitioncat":[245],"class_list":["post-1989","definition","type-definition","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","definitioncat-internet"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.2 (Yoast SEO v24.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is an Email Server (MTA)? - Definition from Techopedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Email Server and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Email Server\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Email Server and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1660\/email-server-email\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Techopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-12-12T15:10:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@techopedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1660\/email-server-email#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1660\/email-server-email\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Margaret Rouse\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5\"},\"headline\":\"Email Server\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-05-03T14:40:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-12-12T15:10:03+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1660\/email-server-email\"},\"wordCount\":227,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1660\/email-server-email#respond\"]}],\"articleSection\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1660\/email-server-email\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1660\/email-server-email\",\"name\":\"What is an Email Server (MTA)? 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