how does email go from address to IP

[triska]

how does this work?
like how does an email address get translated into an IP address by
a computer sending email.

 

[MrMilney]

The domain name part of the address (jdoe@somewhere.com) is resolved to an IP address using DNS (just like a web page). Then the message's constituent packet(s) are routed to that IP address where, assuming there is a mail client listening, they are reassembled into a message. The receiving mail client then attempts to resolve the user's name (jdoe@somewhere.com) and delivers the message to their mailbox.

 

[Nothinman]

Actually the mail server first looks up the domain's MX record to find out what machine it should deliver mail to, then the mail exchanger's name is translated to an IP address and the mail is delivered there, if there's more than one MX record it tries them in order of preferance specified with the MX record in DNS. If there's no MX record the server tries to translate the domain to an IP and deliver to that address.

 

[MrMilney]

I stand corrected. Thanks Nothinman.