How Email Works
Like other Internet services, email is built around a client/server process. However, the email process is a bit more complicated. To put it briefly, the computers at both ends of the email transaction act as clients, and the message is passed across the network by servers in between. The email delivery process is shown in Figure 18.1. A client sends a message to an email server. The server reads the address of the intended recipient and forwards the message to another email server associated with the destination address. The message is stored on the destination email server in a mailbox. (A mailbox is similar to a folder or queue of incoming mail messages.) The user to whom the message is addressed occasionally logs on to the ...
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