sending e-mails without using mail()
i'm not even sure how feasible this would be, so if i'm completely outta my mind, feel free to tell me.
here's a quick summary: i have a client who has a form on their website on which their customers can request a quote. once the quote has been requested, all data input by the customer is saved in a database for future retrieval. once the price information is obtained for the customer, it's entered into another form (accessible by the client's employees only), which sends an e-mail to the customer with the price they requested, etc. (i hope that made sense)
the problem i'm having is this: a lot of people enter invalid e-mail addresses and so i'm getting a lot of bounced e-mails from people who have requested a quote but not put in a valid e-mail address for themselves. i'd like it if there was a way to directly send an e-mail to the recipient's server and get a response, which can then be passed to my php script, rather than waiting for the bounced e-mails (which i, and not my client, receive.. therefore the client never knows if a mail bounced or not).
i'm sure that this is technically possible, but i'm wondering whether it's practical and if there are any obvious drawbacks that i'm missing in using this approach. thanks!
here's a quick summary: i have a client who has a form on their website on which their customers can request a quote. once the quote has been requested, all data input by the customer is saved in a database for future retrieval. once the price information is obtained for the customer, it's entered into another form (accessible by the client's employees only), which sends an e-mail to the customer with the price they requested, etc. (i hope that made sense)
the problem i'm having is this: a lot of people enter invalid e-mail addresses and so i'm getting a lot of bounced e-mails from people who have requested a quote but not put in a valid e-mail address for themselves. i'd like it if there was a way to directly send an e-mail to the recipient's server and get a response, which can then be passed to my php script, rather than waiting for the bounced e-mails (which i, and not my client, receive.. therefore the client never knows if a mail bounced or not).
i'm sure that this is technically possible, but i'm wondering whether it's practical and if there are any obvious drawbacks that i'm missing in using this approach. thanks!
