Email Delivery Explained!
Sending and receiving email is similar to traditional mail. To send a letter through the mail it requires a “to” and “from” address. The “to” address directs the letter to its destination, and the “from” address can be use in case the mail is returned. In the digital world a mail exchange (MX) server can be used to send and receive email. The MX server has specialized software for distributing mail. To determine the destination of the email, the mail delivery agent (MDA) reads the header and determines if the email should remain on its own server or sent over the internet to a remote server. The MDA takes the place of the postal worker, in this case it looks at the “to” and “from” addresses and determines if it can be delivered locally or placed on a truck and sent across state lines. To accomplish this, the MDA uses two specifications, the address record (A Record) and the mail exchange record (MX) record. The A record takes the domain of the host and translates it into an IP address