Validating email addresses

[rob@xxxxxxxxx]

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I was researching the thread "Validating email addresses" from
http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l/200006/msg01538.html

The solutions:
- ruled out "finger" because often blocked
- suggested gethostbyname or gethostbyaddr
- suggested using a reply to address to process bounced back emails
- checking internet tables of blocked email addresses

There didn't seem to be anything, other than the bounce back, to truly
validate an email address.

My question is the following acceptable
PING RMTSYS(&domainpart) MSGMODE(*QUIET *ESCAPE)
MONMSG TCP3210
versus the hassle of coding gethostbyname, or is ping often blocked?
Correct me if I am wrong but if I entered a nonexistent host table entry
like ralph.huey then gethostbyname would find it since there is a host
table, or a DNS entry, for ralph.huey.  Granted, you'd have to have a
really hosed up host table for this to be of a real concern.  But ping
would report the error.

Rob Berendt
--
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Benjamin Franklin