Is there a way that you can validate an email address entered by checking to see if it exists?
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Is there a way that you can validate an email address entered by checking to see if it exists?
No, not from JavaScript. Once you're on the server side, you can contact the mail server and see if it rejects mail to that address, but that's not 100% reliable either, because many mail servers (qmail and MS Exchange in particular) don't check existence of recipients during the SMTP exchange.
If the address entered belongs to the guy who enters it, it might be warranted to send a confirmation mail, just as this forum does. Again, though, that's server-side stuff.
Thanks CB. Do you think the server side stuff is best left to servlets or jsp or would a server side version of javascript be just as suitable?
That depends on your server, and what technology you're familiar with. Netscape Server supports (or rather supported) server-side JavaScript, and ASP can be scripted with JScript, but neither is an attractive choice.