is mail delivered ?

[sniperscope]

Hi gurus,

How can i be sure mail() function is really delivered or not ? So far my program send mail to all my mail list but some of these mail addresses are not using anymore. So i want to check which mail was delivered successfully. ?

 

Regards

[drisate]

You can only know if the mail() function worked ... after that it depens on the mail server that catches it ...

[sniperscope]

I have some dump date in my mysql table and i have one real record(my mail address) and it says "Mail was sent successfully" but actually there is aaa@bbb.com.jp (which there is not such mail address)

here is my code so far.

do{	
	$mail = $row_r['mail'];			

	$sending = mail($mail, $mail_header, $body, $header);

	if($sending != 1){
		$flag = 1;
		$query_update = "UPDATE mail_mag SET err = '$flag' WHERE mail = '$mail'";
		$r_update = mysql_query($query_update, $myconn) or die(mysql_error());
	}	

} while ($row_r = mysql_fetch_array($r));

[Zane]

You know all those times when you register to a place and don't want to put your real e-mail...so you put in jkdkdfjkl@gobbledygoop.pop  Well, if the mail() function was able to check the validity of an e-mail instantaneous...we wouldn't be able to do such things.

 

The only way around it is to set up a confirmation e-mail script.

[sniperscope]

But i know somehow it is possible with perl/cgi.

[Zane]

Well you second option to this fiasco here is to waste resources trying to be secure.

 

You can strip the email of the domain.....PING it and throw an error if the domain is not valid.

You can check the main part of the domain for verification.. i.e the dot com area.  Make sure it's a valid ICANN suffix. (.com, .net, .biz .tv ...etc, etc etc)

You could make the user type their email several times so they don't just type random characters...with an @ symbol

 

Either way though....unless you have them confirm by a link that they received the email....there is no way to tell if the email is real.

[sniperscope]

Thanks for suggestion. I think i have to send a confirmation mail, this will be painless. 

[Daniel0]

Well you second option to this fiasco here is to waste resources trying to be secure.

 

You can strip the email of the domain.....PING it and throw an error if the domain is not valid.

You can check the main part of the domain for verification.. i.e the dot com area. Make sure it's a valid ICANN suffix. (.com, .net, .biz .tv ...etc, etc etc)

You could make the user type their email several times so they don't just type random characters...with an @ symbol

 

Either way though....unless you have them confirm by a link that they received the email....there is no way to tell if the email is real.

 

You can also check if the domain name in question has valid MX records using a DNS lookup.

 

getmxrr

[sniperscope]

then how mail services works ? if i send some mail via hotmail or gmail or any other mail service it returns me with an error report if my mail fail ?

[trq]

then how mail services works ? if i send some mail via hotmail or gmail or any other mail service it returns me with an error report if my mail fail ?

 

And so will your mail server used by php. Its just not instantaneous, you also may not even have access to the mail logs.

 

If you have root shell access you can take a look at the mail logs (usually kept within /var/log somewhere), otherwise you might look for a dead.letter file within your ~/ directory.

[angelcool]

I use PHPMailer, and my advise is you at least should give it try.

 

I do not why I have issues with mail(), I guess because my understanding is that  you have to be running a MTA (SMTP server) locally, maybe someone could confirm this though.

[trq]

I use PHPMailer, and my advise is you at least should give it try.

 

I do not why I have issues with mail(), I guess because my understanding is that  you have to be running a MTA (SMTP server) locally, maybe someone could confirm this though.

 

This is usually the case yes. php's mail function does not support authorization so connecting to a remote smtp server is more difficult.