SPUG: Checking Email Addresses

[David Vergin]

Working on an on-line conferencing package...

User registers for the first time giving name and email address.
Script reads data and sends a message with password to user's email address.

But the user unknowingly mis-types his/her email address and then waits forever
for the password to arrive.

<Question>
Is there a way to poll an email server to see if it recognizes a specific
address? (And then display an error message to the user right away)

Or if the script sent the email and checked for a bounce would the bounce arrive
back in time to present an error message to the user waiting for a confirmation
page after hitting 'Submit'? I.e. how fast do emails to bad addresses bounce?
[hmmm... seems like there are several ways/levels in which an email address can
be 'bad']

Is there a solution I am not considering?

As always, url's, rtfm's, clues, suggestions of key words for searches, all
welcome.

tia
David


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