Message submission agent

A message submission agent (MSA), or mail submission agent, is a computer program or software agent that receives electronic mail messages from a mail user agent (MUA) and cooperates with a mail transfer agent (MTA) for delivery of the mail. It uses ESMTP, a variant of the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), as specified in RFC 6409. Many MTAs perform the function of an MSA as well, but there are also programs that are specially designed as MSAs without full MTA functionality. Historically, in Internet mail, both MTA and MSA functions use port number 25, but the official port for MSAs is 587. The MTA accepts a user's incoming mail, while the MSA accepts a user's outgoing mail. Separation of the MTA and MSA functions produces several benefits. One benefit is that an MSA, since it is interacting directly with the author's MUA, can correct minor errors in a message format (such as a missing Date, Message-ID, To fields, or an address with a missing domain name) and/or immediately report an error to the author so that it can be corrected before it is sent to any of the recipients. An MTA accepting a message from another site cannot reliably make those kinds of corrections, and any error reports generated by such an MTA will reach the author (if at all) only after the message has already been sent. One more benefit is that with a dedicated port number, 587, it is always possible for users to connect to their domain to submit new mail. To combat spam (including spam being sent unwittingly by a victim of a botnet) many ISPs and institutional networks restrict the ability to connect to remote MTAs on port 25. The accessibility of an MSA on port 587 enables nomadic users (for example, those working on a laptop) to continue to send mail via their preferred submission servers even from within others' networks. Using a specific submission server is a requirement when sender policies or signing practices are enforced. Another benefit is that separating the MTA and MSA functions makes it easier for an MTA to deny relaying, that is to refuse any mail that is not addressed to a recipient at a domain that is served locally.