way to check an email without sending it??

[Gary Kline]

On Mon, Oct 05, 2009 at 01:59:24PM -0400, Bill Moran wrote:
> In response to Gary Kline <kline at thought.org>:
> > 
> > 	Hey Guys,
> > 
> > 	Is there a way I can tell that an email address, say
> > 
> > 	joe at foo.com 
> > 
> > 	is still valid without joe knowing that I am curious?  --And,
> > 	yes, this isn't a FBSD-specific question... .
> > 
> > 	thanks for any insights,
> 
> Sure.  Telnet to the service and start a SMTP transaction, but then abort it:
> 
> $ telnet mail.potentialtech.com 25
> Trying 66.167.251.6...
> Connected to mail.potentialtech.com.
> Escape character is '^]'.
> 220 mail.potentialtech.com ESMTP If you spam me I will bounce you
> helo mail.potentialtech.com
> 250 mail.potentialtech.com
> mail from: <wmoran at potentialtech.com>
> 250 2.1.0 Ok
> rcpt to: <joe at potentialtech.com>
> 450 5.7.0 <joe at potentialtech.com>: Recipient address rejected: User unknown in local recipient table
> quit
> 221 2.0.0 Bye
> Connection closed by foreign host.
> 
> If you don't get a rejection after the "rcpt to:" line, then you know the
> server will accept the mail and you can close the connection without
> completing the transaction.
> 
> Note, that this is no guarantee.  Some spam catching nonsense may accept
> the mail right up to end, then throw it away without delivering it.



	telnet couldn't connect for unknown reason but thabks for the tip.  I usually just
	write and say HI, Howzit hanging... or whatever.  Anyway, the sendmail -bv ploy
	indicates that this person is still at the address i have.  no big deal; i was just
	wondering.

	thanks, people,

	gary


> 
> -- 
> Bill Moran
> http://www.potentialtech.com
> http://people.collaborativefusion.com/~wmoran/

-- 
 Gary Kline  kline at thought.org  http://www.thought.org  Public Service Unix
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