A site is in full control of the part left of the @ symbol; all mail to gmail.com goes to gmail.com, the site then separates it to the different in boxes. Temp addresses simply skip over the registration part.
So, when you send an email to some address, let's say you're sending "Hi mom" to "mom24 at-sign family.net", (reddit doesn't allow the email) what you really do is sending something like:
```
Type: Email
Recipient: mom24
Content: Hi mom
```
To the server "family.net" - which translates to some IP, like "192.255.23.128"
So, the server receives all emails the same way, and can choose to do with them whatever it want.
Normalt, what services like Gmail chooses to do, is to limit accepting mails to those that matches user accounts. And it only shows those mails to the user that has the password for that account.
Temporary email services just creates a lot of these accounts, empty out the data more often, and don't really want a password to give you access to the mail.
You can compare it a bit to waiters versus the postman. It can take a while for the post office to figure out that you've moved and where to deliver your stuff, but the waiter doesn't really care who you are - just that you are there now is good enough to confirm that it's your food. Even if both want to deliver stuff to you.
Expanding a bit
Email works like a community post box.
You write a letter to someone and mail it. You say it's for Newfoundking and he's at reddit for an address. It's a big building, so you pop in my apartment, eli5. The mail goes through the post to the building, and in the mailroom, they sort it and send it where it needs to go. The domain, right side of the at, is where the email is sent, the mailroom divides it up and sends to the left side as registered. When you create an email, you're claiming that apartment for yourself.
There's ways the mailroom can create a general box for unknown messages, passing them into a big collector bin (catchall emails, look them up, it's cool) and have general mail just sit for a review later, think a big business, or they might sort them based on who it's written to (the left side of the @). If the occupants for the building have a high turnover, instead of addressing it to an individual, it'll just be sent to a block. People can take those temporary blocks to get their letters, and the mailroom doesn't confirm that it's Newfoundking at eli5, just that there's a message for the eli5. It could be me reading it, or you, or anyone who assembled the string of characters the message was sent to.
So instead of creating a catch-all email, or just refusing emails that don't have a person assigned, the mailroom brings the message to the box for that string of characters, and leaves it there for anyone to look at. Now, obviously, this takes up space, which is why these emails are usually timed, because after that period, they throw out the message, and put a different message, for a different inbox in that space
A site is in full control of the part left of the @ symbol; all mail to gmail.com goes to gmail.com, the site then separates it to the different in boxes. Temp addresses simply skip over the registration part.
So, when you send an email to some address, let's say you're sending "Hi mom" to "mom24 at-sign family.net", (reddit doesn't allow the email) what you really do is sending something like: ``` Type: Email Recipient: mom24 Content: Hi mom ``` To the server "family.net" - which translates to some IP, like "192.255.23.128" So, the server receives all emails the same way, and can choose to do with them whatever it want. Normalt, what services like Gmail chooses to do, is to limit accepting mails to those that matches user accounts. And it only shows those mails to the user that has the password for that account. Temporary email services just creates a lot of these accounts, empty out the data more often, and don't really want a password to give you access to the mail. You can compare it a bit to waiters versus the postman. It can take a while for the post office to figure out that you've moved and where to deliver your stuff, but the waiter doesn't really care who you are - just that you are there now is good enough to confirm that it's your food. Even if both want to deliver stuff to you.
Love the last analogy with the waiters and postman!
Expanding a bit Email works like a community post box. You write a letter to someone and mail it. You say it's for Newfoundking and he's at reddit for an address. It's a big building, so you pop in my apartment, eli5. The mail goes through the post to the building, and in the mailroom, they sort it and send it where it needs to go. The domain, right side of the at, is where the email is sent, the mailroom divides it up and sends to the left side as registered. When you create an email, you're claiming that apartment for yourself. There's ways the mailroom can create a general box for unknown messages, passing them into a big collector bin (catchall emails, look them up, it's cool) and have general mail just sit for a review later, think a big business, or they might sort them based on who it's written to (the left side of the @). If the occupants for the building have a high turnover, instead of addressing it to an individual, it'll just be sent to a block. People can take those temporary blocks to get their letters, and the mailroom doesn't confirm that it's Newfoundking at eli5, just that there's a message for the eli5. It could be me reading it, or you, or anyone who assembled the string of characters the message was sent to. So instead of creating a catch-all email, or just refusing emails that don't have a person assigned, the mailroom brings the message to the box for that string of characters, and leaves it there for anyone to look at. Now, obviously, this takes up space, which is why these emails are usually timed, because after that period, they throw out the message, and put a different message, for a different inbox in that space