Verifying e-mails - User Guide [maxprog.com]

Type an email address or load a list from a file stored on your hard disk. If you need to verify a single email address, just type it as is (ex. [email protected]). If what you want is to verify a list, select the 'Email list file' radio button. If the list on screen is empty you will be automatically asked to select a file. If it is not the case, press the 'Load List' or the 'Select...' button. A file selector will let you choose the file. eMail Verifier then loads the selected file adding all entries to the list on screen.

Once you are ready to start the verifying process, press the 'Run Test' button. eMail Verifier first sorts the list by domain in order to boost lookup speed and automatically starts querying DNS server(s) for each address Mail Exchanger(s).

A Mail Exchanger, also known as Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) or Mail Exchange Server is, in the context of the Domain Name System, a computer program or software agent which transfers electronic mail messages from one computer to another. On the DNS lookup response, the Mail Exchangers come as MX records. They are part of the DNS information for a domain. Each MX record has a preference or priority. eMail Verifier can be forced to use the highest priority Mail Exchanger only or from highest to lowest (see Settings).

If no Mail Exchanger is found, the email address is mark as 'Bad'. If the DNS lookup fails, the email address is mark as 'Unable to test' in order to avoid deleting valid addresses because of temporary problems with domains transfers or DNS server failures. If a Mail Exchanger is found, eMail Verifier tries to connect to it and simulates the sending of a message. It does not send the message though - eMail Verifier disconnects as soon as the mail server informs the program whether the address exists or not. In fact, eMail Verifier collects the server response. That response is analyzed to determine if the address is valid (or not) by using a built-in set of rules. Note that you can optionally issue a 'VRFY' command but it is no longer recommended (see Settings).

Once you are finished testing, you will get more information in your list. The email type, whether a Mail Exchanger were found or not and the verifying process result. Those results are very easy to understand.

Valid: Email has passed all tests successfully and has been verified as valid.
Looks valid: Email has passed all tests but the server response is indefinite or vague.
Looks bad: The server response indicates email is likely bad, disabled or hidden.
Bad: The server response is very clear, the address is bad.
Unable to test: No Mail Exchanger were found for a given email address.

In addition eMail Verifier also displays overall results and ratios including a chart to help you find out about the quality of your list. You will often find out that most lists contain a huge amount of bad addresses however it mostly depends on where or how you got it.

Valid Addresses total includes 'Looks valid' and Bad Addresses total includes 'Looks Bad'. Progress shows Tested/Total. Current is the entry number on list which is being processed. Retries count how many times eMail Verifier has tried to finish testing the list. It is like a general timeout auto-reconnection in order to catch late processes.