What is mail sever fo an address

A mail server is a computer system that handles the sending and receiving of email messages over the internet. It's like a post office for email, where messages are stored, sorted, and delivered to their intended recipients.

A mail server typically performs the following functions:

  1. Receiving: It receives email messages from other mail servers or from users' email clients (like Outlook or Gmail).
  2. Storing: It stores the received email messages in a database or file system.
  3. Sorting: It sorts the email messages based on their destination email addresses.
  4. Delivering: It delivers the sorted email messages to the intended recipients' email servers or email clients.
  5. Relaying: It relays email messages between different mail servers or networks.

Mail servers can be categorized into two main types:

  1. Mail Transfer Agent (MTA): An MTA is responsible for transferring email messages between mail servers. Examples of MTAs include Postfix, Sendmail, and Exim.
  2. Mail Delivery Agent (MDA): An MDA is responsible for delivering email messages to users' email clients or local mailboxes. Examples of MDAs include Procmail and Fetchmail.

In the context of an email address, a mail server is responsible for handling the email messages sent to and from that address. For example, if you have an email address like [email protected], the mail server for that address would be responsible for receiving, storing, sorting, and delivering email messages sent to that address.

Here's a simple example of how it works:

  1. You send an email to [email protected] from your email client.
  2. Your email client connects to the mail server for example.com (e.g., mail.example.com).
  3. The mail server for example.com receives the email message and stores it in its database.
  4. The mail server for example.com sorts the email message based on its destination email address ([email protected]).
  5. The mail server for example.com delivers the email message to the mail server for john.doe (e.g., john.doe@localhost).
  6. The mail server for john.doe delivers the email message to John's email client or local mailbox.

I hope that helps clarify what a mail server is and how it works!