ping to check for real email addresses

Is there anyway to ping an email address or something such like to check with it is a real working address. I'm not talking about regex or php validate filters etc, but actually checking the address exists??

Can you ping an email server?

Select CMD.exe or Command Prompt to open. Type ping then the IP Address or DNS Host name then press Enter. For example: ping smtp.gmail.com. NOTE: The connectivity test is successful if a reply from the SMTP Server is received.

It is possible, but not reliable to connect to the recipient mailserver and offer a mail, prompting the mailserver to reject or accept the mail. Not all mail servers will check the validity of adresses, so don't rely on it. Similar question here.