The KISS Principle and SMTP

The KISS Principle and SMTP

The KISS principle refers to a wise adage to Keep It Simple, Stupid. Much of what you do every day might be better done if you make it uncomplicated. One of the most popular e-mail protocols also tries to keep things simple: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, or SMTP.

E-mail clients and servers use SMTP protocols to manage the process of sending and receiving e-mail. As it turns out, instead of just sending an e-mail with the correct RFC 2822 header around it, the e-mail clients and servers need to talk about it first. For instance, a client should identify itself to the server before sending an e-mail. Also, the sender of the e-mail should identify the recipient before sending the e-mail; that way, if the next client/server in the path cannot deliver the e-mail, you do not waste time forwarding the e-mail. Figure 8-6 outlines the process.