In this tutorial … we’ll send emails :) using C# of course.

1. Required:

  • SMTP server I use: smtp.google.com , you must have a Gmail account
  • Little attention / some basic knowledge of C#

2. Creating the client

We start by including System.Net and System.Net.Mail in our program.

1
2

using System.Net.Mail;
using System.Net;

Then, set the two addresses:

1
2
3
4

MailAddress myemail = new MailAddress("me@gmail.com", "Name");  //used for authentication
MailAddress mail_to = new MailAddress("receiver@yahoo.com", "Receiver");  //the email address of the receiver

string password = "email password here";  //used for authentication

We will create a SMTP client that connects to the Gmail server:

1
2
3
4
5
6

SmtpClient client_smtp = new SmtpClient("smtp.gmail.com", 587);   //address and port

client_smtp.EnableSsl = true;   //Gmail requires a ssl connection
client_smtp.DeliveryMethod = SmtpDeliveryMethod.Network;
client_smtp.UseDefaultCredentials = false;
client_smtp.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(myemail.Address, password); //authentication data

That’s the SMTP client, now we have to write the message:

1
2
3
4
5

MailMessage message = new MailMessage (myemail, mail_to);
message.Subject = "Test";  //subject
message.Body = "just a test email";  //content

client_smtp.Send(message);

Finally you get this:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;  
using System.Linq;  
using System.Text;  
using System.Net.Mail;  
using System.Net;

namespace smtp_client  

{
    class Program  
    {
        static void Main (string[] args)  
        {

            MailAddress myemail = new MailAddress("me@gmail.com", "Name");
            MailAddress mail_to = new MailAddress("receiver@yahoo.com", "Receiver");  

            string password = "email_password";

            SmtpClient client_smtp = new SmtpClient("smtp.gmail.com", 587);  
            client_smtp.EnableSsl = true;  
            client_smtp.DeliveryMethod = SmtpDeliveryMethod.Network;  
            client_smtp.UseDefaultCredentials = false;  
            client_smtp.Credentials = new NetworkCredential (myemail.Address, password);

            MailMessage message = new MailMessage (myemail, mail_to);  
            message.Subject = "Hello from sharpcode";  
            message.Body = "just a test";
            
            client_smtp.Send(message);

        }
    }  
}

If the message isn’t showing up in about 5 minutes, it might be an error with your application, if so check the code again.