You may be thinking of the ancient "finger" command, which at some 
point became such a vector for intrusions and enial-of-service attacks 
that most firewalls block it by default, and few sites see any value in 
overriding that.

  So it has become effectively unusable, even if some hosts do still run 
code which includes implementations of it.

David Gillett


On 22 Feb 2009 at 23:17, [log in to unmask] wrote:

> Long ago, I recall there was a "command" -- like "PING" or something -- with which one could test whether an address hen was about to send to actually existed.  I think the idea was how to see whether I remembered an address aright, without actually bugging an addressee or trying it to see it a message bounced.
> 
> Can anyone tell me whether such a thing still exists, and how I might use it.  (Just using the WWWeb has been so easy that I've forgotten all the "old stuff.")     ---ed
> 
> Ed Nelson (from Chicago's southmost suburbs)
> [log in to unmask]
> 
>              PCSOFT maintains many useful files for download
>                      visit our download web page at:
>                   http://freepctech.com/downloads.shtml
> 

             PCSOFT maintains many useful files for download
                     visit our download web page at:
                  http://freepctech.com/downloads.shtml