Email is the most effective and widely used communication tool
Information technology has become so important that all components that once made up parts of it have now branched out to become their own unique platforms. The email service is no exception to this. Businesses heavily rely on email to exchange information with their target audience on a global scale. Why?
Emails are a cheap yet effective means of communication.
It takes less to achieve more. The push of a few buttons is all it takes to send out a message to millions in one go.
Emails have been equipped to offer an added layer of security. Two factor or multi-factor authentication is one such example
Email communications can mold to be informal and professional at the same time.
Most social media platforms require users to sign up with their email addresses. This essentially makes the world one big stage where we link most strongly through email.
Where does SMTP stand among all the emails being exchanged?
Right in the middle of it. Emails would not be so popular, with so many other options available, if it was not for the advancements of SMTP servers.
SMTP or Simple Mail Transfer Protocol is an application that is used to send, receive, and relay outgoing emails between senders and recipients. To put it simply, an outgoing email transfer from one computer to another on the SMTP server. Emails sent over SMTP servers may thus also called SMTP emails.
How Does SMTP Server Work?
The most important function behind the SMTP framework is the relay service. This carries messages between the sender’s server and that of the recipient’s. The SMTP relay service can use to resolve a lot of issues such as email deliverability, IP blacklisting, and so on.
The functioning of an SMTP server can break down into two steps.
The first step includes verification of the computer configuration through which an email is sent and granting permission for the process. In the second step, it sends out the message and follows the successful delivery of the email. If due to some reason, the email fails to be delivered, it returns to the sender.
Maximizing Business Reach by configuring your VPS as a Mail Server
To set up an SMTP server on your VPS connection, you will first need to get a mail server. The good news is, there are various open-source email servers on the internet. Many cannot relpy upon, but there are others such as Postfix or TurboSMTP.
Below is a step by step configuration of TurboSMTP to behave as your own email server
Step1: Log into your VPS server and Install TurboSMTP
As long as you add the right parameters in the settings window, this is pretty much it. That’s how easy it really is to set up an email server on your VPS
To complete configuration, follow through with the remaining customizations
- Select the voice “Account Settings” in your mail client, generally in the “Tools” menu.
- Choose the “Outgoing server (SMTP)” voice:
- A popup window will appear after you press the “Add” button. Here you can make more configurations to set up your SMTP
- All that’s left is to fill the voices as below
- Description: an informal name that you will decide to identify the server (best to use the email provider’s, like Gmail or Yahoo).
- Server Name: the actual SMTP server specification. You can find it either by consulting the web page of your provider or searching for it on online lists of server POP and SMTP
- Port: usually SMTP works with port 25, but as the screenshot shows it can work also with 587, which is the default port, as in the screenshot above, along with others
- Connection security: in itself, SMTP email transfer doesn’t provide encryption. So if you want to make your connection more secure, it’s a good choice to use a STARTTLS or SSL/TLS extension, that employs a separate port for encrypted communication.
- Authentication method: there’s a certain number of methods (passwords, CRAM-MD5, KERBEROS, etc.).
- User Name: your email address.
The most basic SMTP servers can be put together from scratch using all resources available online. If you are not boosting your electronic presence using these amazing features, then you need to reevaluate your dependability on paid-for services.