How to validate an e-mail address

[Anon]

Hello:

How to validate an e-mail besides checking its syntax? Because I am developing a system using e-mail address as user name.

help please

Thank you

[mithril]

Make your sign-up procedure multi-stepped. For example, I come to your site and fill out the membership form. You run an REGX check on the email I provided. If the check passes, you display a screen informing me that my account information has been mailed to the email address I just provided. If the check fails, tell me that it failed and prompt me to re-enter my address.

The key is to auto-generate a password which I need to use to login the first time (after which I can change it). Easiest way to generate the password is to use the random number generator and an array of characters:

&nbsp;&nbsp;<?php

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;// define the length of the password
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;$len = 16;

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;// characters to create password with
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;$chars = array('A','B','C','D','E','F','G','H','I','J','K','L','M','N','O','P','Q','R','S','T','U','V','W','X','Y','Z','a','b','c','d','e','f','g','h','i','j','k','l','m','n','o','p','q','r','s','t','u','v','w','x','y','z','0','1','2','3','4','5','6','7','8','9','#','@','^{','%','$','&','~');}

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;// seed the random number generator
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;mt_srand((double)microtime()*1000000);

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;// create the password
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;for ($x = 0 ; $x != $len ; $x++)
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;$pass .= $chars[mt_rand(0, count($chars))];

&nbsp;&nbsp;?>

-geoff