• The numbers on the picture correspond to the numbers in the text below. The text below explains the process of how e-mail is sent.
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E-mail is composed using special software, known as an e-mail client, on your computer (1). After you tell the software to send your e-mail, TCP/IP on your computer breaks it up into packets and sends it to your local mail server (2).

Your mail server is devoted to sending and receiving mail for you. It talks to the domain name server (3) to address the packets with the IP address of the recipient's mail server.

From your local mail server, the packets are routed through the Internet to the recipient's mail server (4).

The recipient's mail server receives and stores the mail.

When the recipient checks her e-mail, she sends a request, in the form of a packet, to her mail server for any new mail. The e-mail she has received is then sent to her in packets and reassembled by TCP on her computer (5).