Installing a simple SMTP in your PC (Windows)

A server SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is a service that lets you send email with your programs, like Outlook, Thunderbird, Outlook Express. Normally this service is provided by your ISP connectivity (ADSL or modem) as Telecom Italy Alice, Infostrada with Free, Tele 2 and many other national or local.

It may happen, perhaps for work, having to connect the network to a client or a structure that does not use the same supplier for the connectivity of our office or our home. Almost certainly, in these conditions, we will not be able to send mail. The service offered by ISPs to their customers, in fact, is almost always locked if you use it from different lines. For example, connecting with Alice can not send mail with SMTP settings that you use for free.

The simplest solution to all these and immediate problem is to 'install directly into your PC a personal SMTP server. In this way, your PC becomes in effect a real SMTP server, we can turn when we need it and allows us to be 'independent' from the internet connection that we are using.

Among the various software available, it does not present a very recent, but for simplicity and lightness without equal. It's called Argo Mail Server, and is available in both free and fee. It's actually more than just an SMTP server, you can handle real mailboxes, but will be subject of another article.

Installation is simple (does not require any option). Only the first start will give a notice regarding the entitlement to the relay and any other missing options which will be discussed later. Argo Mail Server will start anyway and you'll see its icon in the system tray at the bottom right.

To set options for a minimum simple operation, you must click the right button on the icon you see in the picture and choose "Options". This will open the window that you see reported in the figure. The program is initially set with a series of restrictions which prevent the shipment of mail. E 'therefore necessary to modify the parameters "Allow Relay" (enable) and "DNS Server" by specifying the address 208.67.222.222 (address from OpenDNS).

At this point you can set your mail program to use "localhost" as SMTP service. For example, if you use Outlook Express email settings found in a window of options as follows, where the box "Outgoing mail (SMTP)" settings as shown in "localhost".

From this moment on every outgoing email will go through Argos, whose icon will turn red during shipping.

Caveats: transforming a PC into a server to send out mail, the service is enabled only to you, but also to people outside that are "networked" with you. It 'then must activate it only when necessary. To guard against this problem can be set to send out an email and password in the options for Argo data set that would go even e-mail program.

Download Argo Mail or visit the official website.