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"Snippets" are mini-articles - they allow me to very quickly add answers to your frequently asked questions, and add brief explanations for topics that you've searched for without success. So, everytime you send an email or perform a search, chances are a new snippet will be the result!

11 Dec: Your email validation doesn't work!

Robert Gibson:

I was excited to hear that there was a way to validate email addresses, but its another hoax. The SMTP and other validation does not work!

All that is being checked is the domain, which does not cover typo's...

All the user needs to enter is [email protected] and your function says it's valid. It looks like the only way to validate an address is still to send mail to it, and check the response?

Me:

First, check out Hexillion's answer...

http://www.hexillion.com/docs/hexgadgets_faq.htm#SuccessForBadAddr

..where they say "Some SMTP servers will not complain about bad addresses".

Although no-one can fix the problems caused by SMTP servers that lie, it's still useful (IMHO) to check. The user may be well meaning, but entered a typo. A lot of SMTP servers *DO* report the correct answer.

I use both. I validate real-time with Hexillion, for my users benefit, and then I require the user to confirm by clicking a link in the confirmation email I send. The latter is for my benefit.

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