How to ping an email address: Step-by-step guide

Pinging an email address to check its validity is a positive step to optimizing your email deliverability. It will help identify addresses that don't exist, which you can then remove from your list.

But, pinging an email address has limitations. You may receive false results depending on the mail server's setup. The process also doesn’t provide context about the response and is time-consuming when verifying multiple addresses. 

With this in mind, we’ll also highlight when it may be best to use an email address verification service as an alternative to pinging an email address.

What is email pinging?

Email pinging is the process of verifying the validity of an email address without sending an actual email. This technique is often used to ensure that an email address exists and is capable of receiving mail before sending to it. 

It's one of several ways of verifying an email address without hitting send. This is important because removing email addresses that don’t exist from your list will reduce your email bounce rate, improving your overall email deliverability and maintaining your sender reputation.

How does email pinging work?

Email pinging uses the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) to communicate with the mail server. 

You start the process by connecting to the server and issuing commands to simulate sending an email. 

The server's response indicates whether the email address is valid and capable of receiving emails.

How to ping an email address

The process of manually pinging an email address is fairly manageable if you’re familiar with running command prompts and Telnet. Follow the steps below to start.  

1. Enable Telnet

First, enable your computer’s Telnet client as this is what lets you communicate with the address’s mail server. How you do this will depend on the operating system you use. 

2. Get mail server details 

Next, identify the SMTP server for the email domain you want to test with your PC’s Terminal application. 

You can do this by running the command [nslookup -type=mx example.com]. Just replace example.com with the domain of the email address you want to ping and press enter to run the command. 

If there are relevant records associated with the domain, the command will return a list of mail servers and a number that shows the server priority.

3. Connect to the mail server

Next, connect to the chosen mail server on port 25 (the SMTP port) by running the command [telnet mail.example.com 25]. 

As in the previous step, swap example.com for your chosen domain.

4. Chat with the mail server

Now test the connection by simulating sending an email to your chosen address. This is the part when you actually ping the address. 

This process requires 5 separate commands:

1. Use the HELO command to introduce yourself to the server: [HELO yourdomain.com]. Replace yourdomain.com with your domain name (or any domain, such as gmail.com). 

2. Use the MAIL FROM command to specify the sender’s email address: [MAIL FROM:<[email protected]>] Replace [email protected] with a valid email address.

3. Use the RCPT TO command to specify the recipient’s email address: [RCPT TO:<[email protected]>] Replace [email protected] with the email address you want to test.

4. Use the QUIT command to close the connection: [QUIT]

5. Determine the result

The response to the RCPT TO command will tell you if the email exists. 

An example positive response that shows the address exists is [250 2.1.5 Ok] 

An example negative response for an invalid email address is [550 5.1.1 <[email protected]>: Recipient address rejected: User unknown in virtual mailbox table] 

Here are examples of Telnet sessions for both successful and unsuccessful email tests.

Is pinging an email address reliable?

Email pinging can be useful for verifying email addresses, but it has limitations and is not always reliable. 

Here are some common issues that can impact your results.

Catch-all servers

Some email servers are configured to accept all incoming emails sent to a domain. These servers will provide a positive response to any request about emails on that particular domain, whether or not it’s an address that exists.

Anti-spam measures

Many email servers use techniques like greylisting and temporary rejections to prevent automated tools from verifying email addresses. This can result in false negatives.

Secure server configurations

Some servers do not provide detailed responses for security reasons, making it impossible to determine the validity of an email address with a ping.

Blocked outbound connections

The problem isn’t always with the target server. Some internet service providers (ISPs) block outgoing SMTP requests to stop spam. In this case, you won’t be able to connect with the domain’s mail server. Cloud providers like AWS and Google Cloud also block outbound traffic.

Lack of context

Pinging an email address also won’t provide any information about the quality of the address. For example, it won’t tell you if it’s a disposable address that is no longer in use, or a role-based address belonging to a group of users rather than a single person.  

An alternative way to verify email addresses

If the above steps seem confusing or you need a reliable way to test multiple email addresses at once, using an email address verification tool like MailerCheck is a good alternative to pinging. 

The process is easier, faster and gives you more context about the address in question. 

Simpler process

Checking an email address with an email verification tool is as simple as pasting the address into a text box. You’ll avoid the hassle of the steps above, and the checker tool will do all the hard work for you.

Test multiple addresses at once

Email validation tools allow you to check the quality of an entire list of emails at the same time. You’ll save a ton of time if you’re a marketer or salesperson looking to check multiple subscribers simultaneously.

More accurate results

Email verification tools don’t just check whether the address can be pinged, they also provide context about the quality of the address. 

They’ll highlight issues such as catch-all domains, disposable email addresses, role-based emails, typos, syntax errors, and more. This all allows you to make more informed decisions about whether to hit send

The downside is that email verification services cost money. But it’s typically very affordable and you can usually verify a limited number of email addresses for free. 

For example, MailerCheck’s free trial includes enough credits to verify 200 email addresses. Once you’ve used these credits, pricing starts at just $10 to check 1,000 addresses and the per-credit price decreases as you buy more.

How to verify an email address with MailerCheck

Verifying an email address or a list of email addresses with MailerCheck is exceptionally easy.

Follow these steps:

1. Sign up for MailerCheck. This costs nothing and you’ll receive 200 free credits.

2. To verify a single address, type the email address into the Verify an email address box in the main dashboard.

3. If the address is valid you'll receive a response saying the address is safe to send.

4. If there’s a problem with the address, you’ll receive an error message explaining the issue. Read more about what each of the MailerCheck email verification statuses means here.

5. To verify multiple email addresses simultaneously, click on the Email verification tab and then hit the Verify list button. 

6. Choose to upload a list of email addresses in CSV or TXT format, or connect to your email marketing service provider to automatically import addresses.

7. The test will run and you can see the progress in the Email verification dashboard.

8. Hit View details to see a summary of the statuses or download the results as a CSV file to see the status of each address.

Choose the verification method that makes sense for you

Pinging an email address and using an email validation tool are both ways to check the validity of an email address. Follow the steps listed above to check an email with a ping. 

Alternatively, sign up for MailerCheck for an easier, faster, and more accurate method of verifying email addresses. Remember, you can check your first 200 email addresses for free!

Whichever method you choose, you’ll have taken positive steps to remove low-quality email addresses from your email list, improving your email marketing campaign deliverability and giving you the best chance of generating results!