When you have a shared web hosting account and you create an e-mail address, you may take the option to send and receive messages for granted, but in fact, this is not always true. Sending e-mail messages isn't always part of the hosting packages that service providers offer and an SMTP service is necessary to be capable to do that. The abbreviation represents Simple Mail Transfer Protocol and that is the piece of software that permits you to send emails. If you use an e-mail application, it creates a connection to the SMTP server. The latter then requests the DNS data of the domain, which is a part of the receiving address to find out what mail server deals with its emails. After some system information is interchanged, your SMTP server delivers the e-mail to the remote IMAP or POP server and the email is finally delivered in the related mailbox. An SMTP server is required if you work with some sort of contact form also, so if you work with a cost-free hosting plan, for example, it is very likely that you will not be able to use such a form as many free website hosting providers don't allow outgoing e-mails.