Validate Email Addresses

Question:

Do you have a tool to validate email addresses
I want to be able to run through my database and:
1)Just check that the email is OK - format wise ( @ one . etc )
2)REALLY check that the emails are valid by checking with the clients eMail
server

I know this is possible, and I am sure I have seen it on your site, but
can't find it

Answer:

Unfortunately, it's not very easy to check email validity directly with an SMTP server. There are two main reasons:

1) Quite often SMTP servers are behind firewalls that block port 25, so they are not reachable. Also, outgoing port 25 is commonly blocked as well.

2) Many SMTP servers will not report an email address as invalid because the mailbox is setup with a "catch-all" address.

The best way to manage valid/invalid email addresses is by fielding bounced emails. The BounceAddress property can be used to have bounces sent to a separate address where bounces can be processed by a program. (One possibility is to use the Chilkat Bounce component...)