On Thu, 4 Mar 1993 07:18:24 PST Glee Willis <[log in to unmask]> said: >I "walked" Nathan through a port 25 inquiry, showing how he would be >able to simultaneously obtain the host _name_ equivalent for the IP >number he was using, as well as verify the existence of the userid in >question which, FWIW, *does* exist. Don't trust what VRFY says. Oh, if it says the user doesn't exist, then it very probably doesn't, but if it replies positively it doesn't mean anything. SMTP may not be in a position to know whether the user really does exist, as it may just be an "input channel" into an external mail system. Thus, it is not required to verify that the mailbox actually exists, only to say whether it will accept a message for that user or not. The message can later be rejected by another mailer down the path. Eric