How do I find my SMTP server?

How do I find my SMTP server?

Many users have the common belief that an SMTP server must be named smtp.domain.com. An SMTP server can be named anything at all, smtp.domain.com is a common name along with mail.domain.com.


  1. You can find the SMTP server by contacting your Web Presence Provider and asking them for SMTP server information for the Web Server.
  2. At a command prompt  in Windows you can type:
    ping smtp.mysite.com
    and/or
    ping mail.mysite.com

    to see if you get a response from one of the commands. Pings may be blocked by the ISP or server, if you see an IP address returned (E.G. 65.77.42.122) then you know the host name exists.
  3. At a command prompt (Windows 2000 and up) use the nslookup command and set the query parameter to mx via "q=mx" to query the MX record for your domain name:

    >nslookup
    >set q=mx
    >mysite.com