Results 1 to 7 of 7

Thread: Seeing if Email Address is active?

  1. December 26th, 2004, 08:37 PM #1
    Wood Yee
    Wood Yee is offline
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2001
    Posts
    6

    Seeing if Email Address is active?

    Hi! Total newbie question here: Is there a way to see if an email address is active? I'm tired of emailing old co-workers at their last email address that they gave me and getting the letter rejected because they're no longer working there. I'd like to run a command to check if the account's still open (finger? ping?). Thanks!
    Reply With Quote Reply With Quote
  2. December 26th, 2004, 09:15 PM #2
    unhappy
    unhappy is offline
    Banned
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Posts
    534
    not many ppl run finger anymore and ping won't help you in this situation

    just email the address ... but you've done that already
    Reply With Quote Reply With Quote
  3. December 26th, 2004, 10:27 PM #3
    jm459
    jm459 is offline
    AO's Mr Grumpy
    Join Date
    Apr 2003
    Posts
    903
    Suggest you have a look at Advanced Email Verifier. It may be the type of software you are looking for. I use it with good results, although not 100%. It will not work with aol addresses
    http://www.glocksoft.com
    Computer says no
    (Carol Beer)
    Reply With Quote Reply With Quote
  4. December 26th, 2004, 10:52 PM #4
    hiddeninclouds
    hiddeninclouds is offline
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Location
    LA, CA
    Posts
    292
    If you can connect via smtp to the email server you think the address is on then you could use the vrfy command
    http://www.gordano.com/kb.htm?q=319
    A mind full of questions has no room for answers
    Reply With Quote Reply With Quote
  5. December 27th, 2004, 09:03 AM #5
    lordjango
    lordjango is offline
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Dec 2004
    Posts
    11
    If The Adress is obsolete the Webmaster will send you a failure report otherwise it is still active.It is also possible that your co workers no longer use that id.They might have switched over to a new one.Just contact them and get the new ID
    JANGO RULLEZ
    Reply With Quote Reply With Quote
  6. December 27th, 2004, 12:17 PM #6
    hypronix
    hypronix is offline
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Posts
    813
    If you're maintaining an address book for work then one solution would be to mass mail everybody with a simple message that simply tells them of your purpose and instructs them to not reply. That way you should only get bounce backs from the IDs that are no longer current.

    As a note, this could be interpreted as spam by some people/mail servers. But I'd think it would still cause a bounce back if the address doesn't exist anymore.
    /\\
    Reply With Quote Reply With Quote
  7. December 27th, 2004, 12:43 PM #7
    nihil
    nihil is offline
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    United Kingdom: Bridlington
    Posts
    17,188
    I'm tired of emailing old co-workers at their last email address that they gave me and getting the letter rejected because they're no longer working there
    Maybe I haven't understood,

    It would seem that your friends' workplaces are acting as their e-mail provider? hence the only way to find out if an account is active is to send an e-mail, and see if it gets accepted or rejected.

    Any other approach is likely to be interpreted as an attack, and is not to be recommended.

    Just a thought
    Reply With Quote Reply With Quote
« Previous Thread | Next Thread »

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  

Forum Rules