How to validate smtp credentials before sending mail?

Question

I need to validate the username and password set in an SmtpClient instance before sending mail. Using this code:

SmtpClient client = new SmtpClient(host);
client.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(username,password);
client.UseDefaultCredentials = false;

// Here I need to verify the credentials(i.e. username and password)
client.Send(mail);

How can I validate whether the user identified by the credentials is allowed to connect and send a mail?

Answer 1

There is no way.

SmtpClient bascially can not validate the usernamepassword without contacting the serve it connects to.

What you could do is do it outside SmtpClient, by opening a TCP connection to the server... but authentication CAN be complicated depending how the server is configured.

May I ask WHY you need to know that before sending? normal behavior IMHO would be to wrap sending in appropriate error handling to catch exceptions here.

Answer 2

My production code for username and password validation before sending mail:

public static bool ValidateCredentials(string login, string password, string server, int port, bool enableSsl) {
        SmtpConnectorBase connector;
        if (enableSsl) {
            connector = new SmtpConnectorWithSsl(server, port);
        } else {
            connector = new SmtpConnectorWithoutSsl(server, port);
        }

        if (!connector.CheckResponse(220)) {
            return false;
        }

        connector.SendData($"HELO {Dns.GetHostName()}{SmtpConnectorBase.EOF}");
        if (!connector.CheckResponse(250)) {
            return false;
        }

        connector.SendData($"AUTH LOGIN{SmtpConnectorBase.EOF}");
        if (!connector.CheckResponse(334)) {
            return false;
        }

        connector.SendData(Convert.ToBase64String(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes($"{login}")) + SmtpConnectorBase.EOF);
        if (!connector.CheckResponse(334)) {
            return false;
        }

        connector.SendData(Convert.ToBase64String(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes($"{password}")) + SmtpConnectorBase.EOF);
        if (!connector.CheckResponse(235)) {
            return false;
        }

        return true;
    }

More details in the answer to a similar question.

Code on github

Answer 3

Validating before, sending mail is not possible with the SMTP client class in .net 2.0.

Attempting to validate by hand, by opening a port is as good as writing your own SMTP client, it is complex.