The basic steps of this process are mentioned below for your convenience.

• Step 1: After composing a message and send, your email client - whether it's Outlook Express or Gmail - connect to the domain's SMTP server. This server can name many things; a STANDARD example would be smtp.local.com.
• Step 2: In this step, the email client communicates with the SMTP server by giving your email address, the recipient's email address, the message body, and any attachments.
• Step 3: Now SMTP server has complete details to processes the recipient's email address - ESPECIALLY its domain. If the domain name is the same as the sender's, the message is routed directly over to the domain's POP3 or IMAP server - no routing between servers needed. If the domain is different, though, the SMTP server will have to communicate with the other domain's server.
• Step 4: To deliver email and to find the recipient's server, the sender's SMTP server has to communicate with the DNS or Domain Name Server. The DNS will take the recipient's email domain name and translates this into an IP address. The sender's server cannot route an email properly with a domain name alone; an IP address is a unique NUMBER that is assigned to every computer that is connected to the Internet. By knowing information, an outgoing mail server can perform its work more efficiently.
• Step 5: Once SMTP server got the recipient's IP address, it can connect to its SMTP server. This isn't done directly, though; instead, the message is routed along with a series of unrelated SMTP servers until it arrives at its destination.
• Step 6: The recipient's SMTP server scans the incoming message. If the domain and user name are valid, it forwards the message along to the domain's POP3 or IMAP server. From there, it is placed in a send mail queue until the recipient's email client allows it to downloaded. At that point, the message can READ by the recipient.