SQL Mail provides an easy way to send and read e-mail from SQL Server. However, because SQL Mail is a Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI) application, a MAPI subsystem must be present on the server. Microsoft Windows 2000 does not provide a MAPI subsystem (Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 installs a MAPI subsystem when you install Windows Messaging). Therefore, in order to use SQL Mail, you must install a MAPI client such as Microsoft Outlook.
You can use other methods to send Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP) e-mail directly from SQL Server such as Collaboration Data Objects for NT Server (CDONTS) or Collaboration Data Objects for Windows 2000 (CDOSYS) in combination with the sp_OA SQL Server OLE Automation stored procedures. This article provides an example of how to use the preceding techniques to send e-mail to an Internet mail server. You can further develop the technique to provide a more robust mailing system. For example, you may want to add error handling code. The methods in the sample do not provide a means for reading or processing e-mail.