a web service by Extreme Messaging
Address Validation Services FAQ
General Questions
Where does the address validation take place?
In the Extreme Messaging data center; this is a completely hosted solution.
Can only web pages use the address validation?
Absolutely not. The solution was built so any application with access to the
Internet can use the validation service. Certainly web-based applications that
collect email address information will use it, but any legacy or web based
internal system used, for example, for customer service or order entry
could make use of the service.
In a web situation, what makes the validation service
execute?
When the user sends the web page to your web server, the computer program
that processes the page will create a validation request and send the
information entered by the user to the validation service. The validation
service will return an XML document that contains the processed users
information. Depending on the result of the validation, the web server will
either send an error back to the user to reenter the email address or store the
address and move on to the next page.
In a batch job or legacy application, how does the
validation service start?
The application sends the user information to the validation service. The
validation service returns the processed information, in an XML document, to
the application, which then takes the appropriate next step.
This seems easy. Why can't I build this myself?
You certainly can build it; we did. But we are DNS, web and email experts who
have been in the direct, personalized, email market since its inception
and have extensive experience. Also, our validation rules are updated
constantly as the rules of the web change. It is no small effort to build,
populate, and maintain the pre-cached DNS repository.
What is a web service or .NET service?
A web service is a way of programmatically providing information via the
Internet. They nearly always are accessed via HTTP or HTTPS and are XML
based. Frequently they use SOAP, an XML-based industry standard for
requesting and returning data.
.NET is Microsoft's lastest development platform. Its primary focus is on
the easy creation and consumption of SOAP-based web services.
Email Address
Why do I need email address validation?
Over 20% of all email addresses in mailing lists are incorrect. Many of
these incorrect addresses are entered incorrectly bu the user. Even
with the user is trying to provide a valid email address, they frequently make
mistakes. One attempt to solve this issue is requesting the user to enter the
address twice. This will reduce some of the errors, but the best means to
collect valid email addresses is to validate them at the source while the user
is actively providing data. The email Address Validator was designed and built
to provide this solution to any company that is collecting email addresses.
What is the downside to using the fast validation all
the time?
New domains are being created all the time, and there is always a lag between
the time the domain is created and the time Extreme Messaging's caching process
picks-up the new domain. With fast validation, you will get more
"Unknown" results.
Which lookup is better Fast or Full DNS?
It depends on your needs. If you are validating from a web page and the user is
waiting for the next page to display the fast option is the only option. To
perform a full lookup against a DNS server will take more time than the user is
willing to wait. The Full DNS lookup is the definitive answer to whether a
domain is valid. In the situation where you want to validate a list of email
addresses before sending the emails this is the best option.
How does the Fast lookup work so quickly?
Extreme Messaging is constantly updating a local repository of all valid and
invalid domain names. When a fast validation is requested this repository is
used to validate the domain portion of the address.
Mailing Address
What validation is currently done on mailing
addresses?
Currently, the Address Validation service checks US zip codes against cities
and states to ensure that the zip code the user enters is valid, and it matches
the city and state that they enter.
Is the mailing address validation CASS certified?
Not yet, but it will be soon. Extreme Messaging is in the process of completing
the United States Postal Service (USPS) CASS certification.
What does CASS certification mean?
It is a certification offered by the USPS to software vendors. It
certifies that their address parsing and validation tool is ofthe highest
quality and accuracy. If a direct mailing list is run through a
CASS-certified tool before being sent, the postal rate is much cheaper.
Please click
here for more information from the USPS web site.
What will the mail address validation process do to an
address?
The mail validation process will soon add the ZIP+4 encoding, carrier route
information, and Line Of Travel information to the address.
Phone Number
What validation is done on phone numbers?
The phone number the subscriber enters is checked against an extensive database
of the US and international numbering systems. The country code, area
code, and "subscriber portion" are all validated to ensure that the given
number is a legal number.
Credit Card
Is the credit card to be checked actually charged or
authorized?
No, the credit card validation service doesn't actually submit an authorization
request against the card. We couldn't provide the required performance if
we did that. Instead, we check the card number provided against the
various rules for the different types of cards to ensure that the card number
is a legal number for that issuer.
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