A mail exchanger resource record ( MX record) contains the name of the recipient's mailserver. When transmitting email messages, mail user agents (MUAs) and mail transfer agents (MTAs) use the domain name system (DNS) to look up a Resource Record (RR) for the recipient's domain. The mailboxes may be accessed and managed by applications on personal computers, mobile devices or webmail sites, using the SMTP protocol and either the Post Office Protocol (POP) or the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP). The transmission of electronic mail from the author's computer and between mail hosts in the Internet uses the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), defined in RFC 53, and extensions such as RFC 6531. The SMTP client transmits the message to the mail exchange, which may forward it to another mail exchange until it eventually arrives at the host of the recipient's mail system.
The general format of an email address is domain, e.g. With the introduction of internationalized domain names, efforts are progressing to permit non-ASCII characters in email addresses.Īn email address consists of two parts, a local part and a domain if the domain is a domain name rather than an IP address then the SMTP client uses the domain name to look up the mail exchange IP address. Mail systems often limit the users' choice of name to a subset of the technically permitted characters. It also urges that receiving hosts deliver messages in a case-independent manner, Į.g., that the mail system in the domain treat John.Smith as equivalent to john.smith some mail systems even treat them as equivalent to johnsmith. Although the standard requires the local part to be case-sensitive, The term email address in this article refers to addr-spec in RFC 5322, not to address or mailbox i.e., a raw address without a display-name.Īn email address, such as is made up from a local-part, the symbol and a domain, which may be a domain name or an IP address enclosed in brackets. While early messaging systems used a variety of formats for addressing, today, email addresses follow a set of specific rules originally standardized by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in the 1980s, and updated by RFC 53. Introduction 1.1.Identifier of the destination where email messages are deliveredĪn email address identifies an email box to which messages are delivered. Generating SMTP Commands from RFC 822 Headerįields.
Information Disclosure in Message Forwarding. Mail Rerouting Based on the 251 and 551 Response Codes. Unwanted, Unsolicited, and "Attack" Messages. Reply Codes after DATA and the Subsequent Meaning of VRFY or EXPN Success Response.
Forwarding for Address Correction or Updating. General Syntax Principles and Transaction Model. Originator, Delivery, Relay, and Gateway Systems. Definition and Registration of Extensions. Protocol for "split-UA" (User Agent) mail reading systems and mobileġ. Information that is important to its use as a "mail submission" Transport and delivery protocol, this specification also contains It covers the SMTP extension mechanisms and best practicesįor the contemporary Internet, but does not provide details about Several previous documents, making all or parts of most of them This document is a specification of the basic protocol for InternetĮlectronic mail transport. Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization stateĪnd status of this protocol. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the