SMTP - MDN Web Docs Glossary: Definitions of Web-related terms 编辑

SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is a protocol used to send a new email.  Like POP3 and NNTP, it is a state machine-driven protocol.

The protocol is relatively straightforward. Primary complications include supporting various authentication mechanisms (GSSAPI, CRAM-MD5, NTLM, MSN, AUTH LOGIN, AUTH PLAIN, etc.), handling error responses, and falling back when authentication mechanisms fail (e.g., the server claims to support a mechanism, but doesn't).