In case you have a shared hosting package and you create an e-mail address, you might take the option to send and receive emails for granted, but in fact, that isn't always the case. Sending email messages isn't always part of the hosting plans that providers have and an SMTP service is required to be capable to do that. The acronym represents Simple Mail Transfer Protocol and this is the piece of software that permits you to send e-mails. If you use an email app, it connects to the SMTP server. The latter then requests the DNS records of the domain, which is a part of the receiving address to find out what mail server manages its email messages. After some system data is interchanged, your SMTP server provides the email to the remote IMAP or POP server and then the e-mail is finally delivered in the related mailbox. An SMTP server is necessary if you are using some sort of contact page form also, so if you have a free hosting package, for example, it's probable that you won't have the ability to make use of such a form as most no charge hosting service providers do not allow outgoing e-mails.