A mail submission agent or MSA is a computer program or software agent which receives electronic mail messages from a mail user agent (MUA) and contacts an mail transfer agent (MTA) for delivery of the mail. A computer program (often simply called a program) is an example of computer software that prescribes the actions (computations) that are to be carried out by a computer. ... To be considered a bonafide agent, an agent (software, hardware or otherwise) must exhibit the behavioural qualities of agenthood. ... Electronic mail, abbreviated e-mail or email, is a method of composing, sending, and receiving messages over electronic communication systems. ... An email client (or mail user agent [MUA]) is a computer program that is used to read and send email. ... A mail transfer agent or MTA (also called a mail server, or a mail exchange server in the context of the Domain Name System) is a computer program or software agent which transfers electronic mail messages from one computer to another. ...

Many MTAs act as an MSA as well, but there are also programs that are specially designed as MSAs without full MTA functionality.

References

"Selected MARID-Related Terms and Acronyms (http://www.technoids.org/maridterms.html)." Techmoids.org. Accessed on February 24, 2005. February 24 is the 55th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

"SMTP is not secure (http://kasoft.freeyellow.com/Central/smtpbad.html)." Kasoft Central. Accessed on February 24, 2005. February 24 is the 55th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

MSA as an abbreviation can have other meanings: see the MSA disambiguation page. MSA can mean Medical savings account is the former name for what is now called the Health savings account (HSA) in the United States. ...