SmtpConnect Function  
 
HCLIENT WINAPI SmtpConnect(
  LPCTSTR lpszRemoteHost,  
  UINT nRemotePort,  
  UINT nTimeout,  
  DWORD dwOptions,  
  LPCTSTR lpszLocalName,  
  LPSECURITYCREDENTIALS lpCredentials  
);

The SmtpConnect function is used to establish a connection with the server.

Parameters

lpszRemoteHost
A pointer to the name of the server to connect to; this may be a fully-qualified domain name or an IP address.
nRemotePort
The port number the server is listening on. A value of zero specifies that the default port number should be used. For standard connections, the default port number is 25. An alternative port is 587, which is commonly used by authenticated clients to submit messages for delivery. For implicit SSL connections, the default port number is 465.
nTimeout
The number of seconds that the client will wait for a response from the server before failing the current operation.
dwOptions
An unsigned integer that specifies one or more options. This parameter is constructed by using a bitwise operator with any of the following values:
Constant Description
SMTP_OPTION_NONE No additional options are specified when establishing a connection with the server. A standard, non-secure connection will be used and the client will not attempt to use extended (ESMTP) features of the protocol. Note that if the mail server requires authentication, the SMTP_OPTION_EXTENDED option must be specified.
SMTP_OPTION_EXTENDED Extended SMTP commands should be used if possible. This option enables features such as authentication and delivery status notification. If this option is not specified, the library will not attempt to use any extended features. This option is automatically enabled if the connection is established on port 587 because submitting messages for delivery using this port typically requires client authentication.
SMTP_OPTION_TUNNEL This option specifies that a tunneled TCP connection and/or port-forwarding is being used to establish the connection to the server. This changes the behavior of the client with regards to internal checks of the destination IP address and remote port number, default feature selection and how the connection is established.
SMTP_OPTION_TRUSTEDSITE This option specifies that the server is trusted. The server certificate will not be validated and the connection will always be permitted. This option only affects connections using either the SSL or TLS protocols.
SMTP_OPTION_SECURE This option specifies that a secure connection should be established with the server and requires that the server support either the SSL or TLS protocol. The client will initiate the secure session using the STARTTLS command.
SMTP_OPTION_SECURE_IMPLICIT This option specifies that the client should attempt to establish a secure connection with the server. The server must support secure connections using either the SSL or TLS protocol, and the secure session must be negotiated immediately after the connection has been established.
SMTP_OPTION_FREETHREAD This option specifies that the handle returned by this function may be used by any thread, and is not limited to the thread which created it. The application is responsible for ensuring that access to the handle is synchronized across multiple threads.
lpszLocalName
A pointer to a null-terminated string which specifies the domain name of the local host. This parameter can be NULL or point to an empty string, in which case the local domain name is determined automatically from the system configuration. This parameter should be used if the mail server only accepts messages from a client that identifies itself using a specific domain name.
lpCredentials
A pointer to a SECURITYCREDENTIALS structure which is used to establish the client credentials for a secure connection to the server. The function SmtpCreateSecurityCredentials can be used to create this structure if necessary. If a standard non-secure connection is being established, or client credentials are not required by the server, this parameter can be NULL.

Return Value

If the function succeeds, the return value is a handle to a client session. If the function fails, the return value is INVALID_CLIENT. To get extended error information, call SmtpGetLastError.

Remarks

The lpszLocalName argument should only point to a specific domain name if it is absolutely necessary. In most cases, it is preferable to pass this parameter as NULL or an empty string and allow the library to automatically determine the correct domain name to use. Providing an invalid domain name may cause the mail server to reject the connection.

The dwOptions argument can be used to specify the threading model that is used by the library when a connection is established. By default, the handle is initially attached to the thread that created it. From that point on, until the it is released, only the owner may call functions using that handle. The ownership of the handle may be transferred from one thread to another using the SmtpAttachThread function.

Specifying the SMTP_OPTION_FREETHREAD option enables any thread to call any function using the handle, regardless of which thread created it. It is important to note that this option disables certain internal safety checks which are performed by the library and may result in unexpected behavior unless access to the handle is synchronized. If one thread calls a function in the library, it must ensure that no other thread will call another function at the same time using the same handle.

Requirements

Client: Requires Windows 7, Windows Vista or Windows XP.
Server: Requires Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2003.
Header: Include cstools7.h.
Library: Use csmtpav7.lib.
Unicode: Implemented as Unicode and ANSI versions.

See Also

SmtpAsyncConnect, SmtpAuthenticate, SmtpDisconnect, SmtpInitialize, SmtpUninitialize