How Email Works

How Email Works?

Emails are electronic messages which are quick and easy way to send, receive and create. You create an email and then send it but what is the process?

MUA: (Mail using Agent)  MUA is a term for an application on which you can send, read or create emails in, this could be Microsoft Outlook, Hotmail or Google mail.

MDA: (mail Delivery Agent) A term for the management for an email transfer between two email senders, MDA’s operate behind a firewall, so if an email fails to send, then an administrator can find the source to the problem.

MTA: (Mail Transfer Agent) A term for the email transfer applications such as Q-mail, A conformation can be then confirmed by the admin of the email user to detect whether or not an email has been sent to the receiver’s MTA.

There are six simple steps in to sending an email:

Step 1: Creating and Sending the email.

The original sender creates and sends an email using their MUA. (Mail using Agent)

Step 2:The MDA routes to the MTA.

MUA transfers the email to the MDA, which can hold the same responsibilities of an MTA by which an admin will check where the MDA is being sent to and will find th address of the MTA to be sent to.

Step 3: Network Clouds

The MTA enters a series of different network ‘clouds’. This is called a Company Network. The network cloud can be slow as it is hosted on the internet and can be slow due to a heavy flow of constant emails etc. This is why it can take longer for some emails to arrive than others.

Some mails encounter spam filters so certain messages aren’t filtered through to your inbox.

Step 4: Email Queue.

The emails are then forwarded to the MDA where the emails ‘queue’ until all of the other emails are forwarded to the MTA.

Step 5:MTA to MDA.

When the email is sent the MTA handles all aspects of mail delivery until the message has been either accepted or rejected by the receiving network.

Step 6: Finally Delivered.

An email may be transferred to more than one MTA within a network cloud and is likely to be passed to at least one firewall before it reaches it's destination.