shadiadiph Posted April 27, 2009 Share Posted April 27, 2009 Is there anyway of checking an email address with the email provider to see if the username exists? I know how to check if the domain is valid just wondering if there is a way to check the username? Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/155835-is-there-anyway-of-checking-an-email-address-with-the-email-provider/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
revraz Posted April 27, 2009 Share Posted April 27, 2009 Send a verification email? Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/155835-is-there-anyway-of-checking-an-email-address-with-the-email-provider/#findComment-820246 Share on other sites More sharing options...
chmpdog Posted April 27, 2009 Share Posted April 27, 2009 there are scripts that check across a database of providers, but these can raise issues. I would recommend a verification email. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/155835-is-there-anyway-of-checking-an-email-address-with-the-email-provider/#findComment-820271 Share on other sites More sharing options...
laffin Posted April 27, 2009 Share Posted April 27, 2009 There is also something called a return reciept email, once an email has been opened, a confirmation reciept is sent back to the sender. Im not shure how the header for this works, but I know a number of email apps do support it. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/155835-is-there-anyway-of-checking-an-email-address-with-the-email-provider/#findComment-820273 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psycho Posted April 27, 2009 Share Posted April 27, 2009 The options of sending read receipts are customizable in the email client and should not be used for verifying an email. I never send a read receipt when requested just out of habit. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/155835-is-there-anyway-of-checking-an-email-address-with-the-email-provider/#findComment-820288 Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadiadiph Posted April 27, 2009 Author Share Posted April 27, 2009 so there is no way to send like a ping to the receiving provider to see if the user is true or false? Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/155835-is-there-anyway-of-checking-an-email-address-with-the-email-provider/#findComment-820741 Share on other sites More sharing options...
premiso Posted April 27, 2009 Share Posted April 27, 2009 so there is no way to send like a ping to the receiving provider to see if the user is true or false? Nope. The only way would be to use IMAP with a cron job to check every x minute(s) to see if a bounce "Mail Delivery Failed" was received and parse that message for their email address. But that in its self can be un-reliable. As it can take longer than a few minutes to receive that notification depending on the mail server(s). Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/155835-is-there-anyway-of-checking-an-email-address-with-the-email-provider/#findComment-820742 Share on other sites More sharing options...
laffin Posted April 27, 2009 Share Posted April 27, 2009 U can log into the smtp server, and send a message usually the server will tell u if it exists but this has its own complications as well. as some servers will require authentication then trying to extract and come up with a legit domain for the service as different providers use different naming systems. Its a lot more immediate than checking imap/pop for a particular message, but it has a lot more complications as well. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/155835-is-there-anyway-of-checking-an-email-address-with-the-email-provider/#findComment-820750 Share on other sites More sharing options...
PFMaBiSmAd Posted April 27, 2009 Share Posted April 27, 2009 Due to the probing attempts by spammers to get mail servers to confirm which email addresses are valid, an increasing number of mail servers are being configured to "silently" accept email that they have no corresponding mail box for. Scripts that open a socket connection to the mail server and start an SMTP exchange to test for an email address can get a false positive indication. The only sure way of determining if an email address is real is to send an email to it with either an activation link in it or an email tracking image in it. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/155835-is-there-anyway-of-checking-an-email-address-with-the-email-provider/#findComment-820752 Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadiadiph Posted April 28, 2009 Author Share Posted April 28, 2009 thats what i was going to do I have a tracking script i made a few onths ago problem is I am trying to develop a contact grabber problem I have see is their are heads avaialable on the net but with a server like yahoo and hotmail not many people store their contacts which returns a valid email address but what most of the grabbers do is just grab the username and stick @yahoo.com or @hotmail.com at the end which isn't very reliable as there is yahoo.co.uk and many other possibilities hotmail is the same gmail and aol are quite safe. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/155835-is-there-anyway-of-checking-an-email-address-with-the-email-provider/#findComment-820914 Share on other sites More sharing options...
nadeemshafi9 Posted April 28, 2009 Share Posted April 28, 2009 yes verfication works, but if ur looking for advanced then you need to set up abounceback address then log into it after sending it a mail with a shell script and then use imap to read how many bouncebacks you have , use a shell script so u can cron it in order to check every hour because bounces can occur a week later. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/155835-is-there-anyway-of-checking-an-email-address-with-the-email-provider/#findComment-820924 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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