@lauravivanco "simple mail transfer protocol".
(it was probably tempting fate to name it that.)
@lauravivanco before SMTP it was literally a game of telephone - your computer would call another computer which would call another, etc, passing the mail along step by step until it got to the recipient.
you'd have to tell it in advance what route to follow when you addressed the letter. it was all kinda fun, if you were a nerd and nothing important depended on it working.
@mom I shudder to think what a complicated mail transfer protocol would do if this is what happens with a simple one!