How to check an email exist or not?

[kevin6s]

Is there any possible method to test a given email address exist or not?

[mrhappiness]

what exactly do you want to test?

exist: send a mail and wait for response (or something like account activation mail here)
server exists: check the part after @
valid: regexp

[kevin6s]

I need to check both user account and the domain exist, but I cannot send a email to test it. Is there any possible solution?

[mrhappiness]

domain is the part after @

for example [e-mail] => domain: hotmail.com
getmxrr or checkdnsrr might be of help or you try fopen/fsockopen

the account itself: i don't think you can test it
the only possibility that came to my mind was trying to logon with the username given (honkeydonk in my example) and search for something like "password invalid" but if it was [e-mail] you have to logon with the complete mailadress so this is no solution at all

why can't you send a mail?

[kevin6s]

Because I just want to test if the email exist or not. Sending email will disturb people.

I have tried to connect the STMP server but most server seems disabled the VRFY command or may be I don't know how to use it.
I also tried to connect the POP3 mail server, but when I type in a invalid user account, it still ask me for the password.

[mrhappiness]

you want to test if the mail exists because you want to send mails to the poepl owning theses adress right?

what if i knew you mail-adress and entered it without you knowing?

it's a valid adress and you will get mails that you regard as spam

i myself prefer getting a mail like this
Somebody created an account at ? using your mail adress.
This is a confirmation mail. To complete registration just click the following link: link goes here

If you do not want to this simply do nothing

beside this i don't know any other possibility for checking a mail-adress
sorry

[kevin6s]

Actually this is a bonus part of my project. I am not going to sending spam email. What I need to do is able to check the email address in my guestbook exist or not but I cannot send any email to them to confirm

[mrhappiness]

if it's for a guestbook i'ld say: leave it as it is

if the user enters a valid mail he can receive mails if he entered a non-valid one he can't receive mails

only thing you can do is check whether the adress given could be a valid one

[kevin6s]

Checking the email exist or not is the bonus part of my project.
Is it impossible to complete the bonus task?

[bad76]

Luckily NOT!
Think to the spammers... a function like this is their paradise!
And don't search any. There isn't anywhere.