> I was wondering if there was a way to detect the > email delivery status of an email programmatically?
Once an e-mail has been sent, there is no way to "track" its delivery like you can with a package sent via FedEx. You can, however, test to see if the mail servers configured for a domain will accept delivery for an address at the initial SMTP level. ActivSoftware has a Java extension for ColdFusion that will take an e-mail address and return whether it is "valid" or not by checking to see if the domain exists, if it has MX records, if there are mail servers responding on the MX records, and whether those mail servers will accept the address up to the RCPT TO command via SMTP. http://www.activsoftware.com/email/verify/ I have this implemented on my sign-up forms as an initial verification that the address is somewhat valid. I also periodically run e-mail newsletter lists through it to weed out bad addresses before sending. Of course, if a mail server has a catchall box, or if it's a backup SMTP relay for the domain that will accept all mail, then it will return a false positive, but it does a decent job of weeding out most of the addresses that are not good. > Essentially what we want to do is to make sure that > an email account exists or guarantee fast delivery. Unfortunately with e-mail there is no guarantee for anything, as many mail servers don't play by all the rules. -Justin Scott, GravityFree Senior Developer / Product Engineer ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:4:231625 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:4 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
