How do I avoid a delay when sending email from my application?

Question

I have a small console application. It checks a few settings, makes some decisions, and sends an email. The problem is the email doesn\'t actually get sent until my application

Answer 1

SmptClient supports async sending of mail via SendAsync, however in practice in a web application this hangs the request thread.

To avoid blocking I recommend using the ThreadPool to fire off the email in a background thread. This won't block your application.

ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(o => {
    using (SmtpClient client = new SmtpClient(...))
    {
        using (MailMessage mailMessage = new MailMessage(...))
        {
            client.Send(mailMessage, Tuple.Create(client, mailMessage));
        }
    }
});