Verify email addresses?

[izbryte]

Ok, so I know how to validate the string and how to check and see if the domain is really out there but is there a god way to find out if the email address really exists? I've seen some programs claiming to do this but can they really? I've tried using the fsockopen() function but it really doesn't help all that much. Does anyone know a better way?

[NogDog]

The only sure way I know of is to do the thing where you send a verification email with a link the user has to click to approve their registration (or whatever it is they're doing).

[izbryte]

NogDog wrote:

The only sure way I know of is to do the thing where you send a verification email with a link the user has to click to approve their registration (or whatever it is they're doing).

I'm doing that now with new ones but I have a LONG list from before that I'd really like to validate.

[bogu]

Filter your list as mutch as u can (check if the email format is correct, check if the domain is correct ...), then send a mass email, if the email cant reach its destination it will return to you, export those emails, make a script to extract email address and delete them from your database ...