Email Server

An email server, also called a mail server, is essentially a computer system that sends and receives emails. When you send an email, it goes through a series of servers to reach its final destination.

Over 300 billion emails are sent and received daily around the world, making it one of the most popular forms of communication.

For a computer system to function as a mail server, it must have mail server software installed. This software then allows the system administrator to manage and create email accounts for any of the domains hosted on the server.

An email server is a computer that has a complete system with different applications or services. Based on the type of action they perform, email servers can be categorized into incoming and outgoing email servers.

Incoming mail servers, also known as POP3 (Post Office Protocol) or IMAP (Internet Access Message Protocol) servers

Outgoing mail servers, also known as SMTP servers (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)

SMTP

This protocol handles any outgoing mail requests and sends emails. So SMTP is short for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol and is the outgoing mail server. We can think of SMTP as moving your email on and across networks.

POP / IMAP

For incoming mail servers, there are two main varieties — POP3 and IMAP. POP3 servers, are best known for fetching the content of the Inbox on your computer’s hard drive. IMAP servers, short for Internet Message Access Protocol, are used for o way synchronization of the entire mailbox.

How to secure your emails?

A secure email server works just like a regular email server, except it uses advanced security protocols to protect your emails:

🔐 Strong encryption: A secure mail server only uses secure connections to transmit data. This includes protocols such as Transport Layer Security (TLS) and end-to-end encryption (E2EE).

🛠️ Mail and sender authentication: Using anti-spoofing protocols such as Sender Policy Framework (SPF), you can cryptographically verify if an email was sent by trusted servers and has not been tampered with.

🎣 Anti-phishing measures: Anti-phishing measures implemented on an email server prevent phishing attacks and mitigate the impact of an attack.

🗺️ Server location: A secure email server should be located in a country with strong data protections, allowing you to benefit from high levels of privacy.