Re: Check for existence of mail address

On Oct 26, 2010, at 8:49 AM, TR Shaw wrote: > On Oct 25, 2010, at 6:38 PM, webdev@blaettner.com wrote: > >> Hi, folks, >> >> I'm wondering how to checking existence of a given >> mail address like foo@bar.com . >> >> At 1st I tried: >> >> if f (filter_var ($maddr, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL) === false) { >> /* some sort of error handling code here */ >> } >> >> where $maddr is the address to be checked. >> But this checks only syntax.. :-( >> >> Is there any other function which checks whether this >> address really exists? >> >> And, of course, I want to avoid sending a test mail just >> for checking :-) >> >> Many THX in advance for suggestions, pointers... >> > > Rolf, > > Since most mailservers have disabled VRFY long ago due to spammers and other miscreants. > > Easiest way is to use class.smtp.php form phpmailer using the following: > > $smtp = new SMTP > if (empty($smtp->Connect())) return false; // Connect failure > if (empty($smtp->Hello("yourmailerver.com")) return false; //Maybe not a mailserve > if(empty($smtp->Recipient($to))) return false; //No such user > $smtp->Close(); // Found user so abort transaction. > return true; > > Tom > > PS I didn't cover greylisting in the above. PPS But why? If you are running a mailing list you need to generate different mail froms and deal with rejections that way . It is spammy if you try to use the above to clean a list and will probably cause you to be black listed. I know I set my server list blacklist too many of these. Tom