The Truth About Servers

The e-mail server also handles outgoing messages in a fashion similar to how the apartment building's mailman collects outgoing mail left by residents. Just as the mailman does not personally deliver each outgoing message to its final address, the e-mail server is configured to interact with other servers, or nodes, through which a message is passed until it reaches its own destination network. At that point, the destination network's e-mail server handles the delivery to the final mailbox.

Most Internet providers offer an e-mail server to their subscribers, so individual users rarely need to install their own e-mail servers. Organizations, regardless of their size, may benefit from installing their own e-mail server, as this can offer increased customizability compared to relying on an ISP's server. Obvious advantages of this include customization (e.g., the choice of mailbox names and behavioral characteristics like quotas, auto-replies, listserv management) and cost savings resulting from the ongoing cost of activating many e-mail addresses through an outside provider.