Question

I’m trying to develop an app that sends email, and our internal network is locked down pretty tight, so I can’t relay using our internal mail servers.

Has anyone ever used something like no-ip.com? Are there any other alternatives?

Answer 1

If you just need to check that the e-mails are being sent to the correct addresses and with the correct contents, the easiest way is to use a drop folder by editing the app or web.config file:

  <system.net>
    <mailSettings>
      <smtp deliveryMethod="SpecifiedPickupDirectory" from="[e-mail]">
        <specifiedPickupDirectory pickupDirectoryLocation="C:\TestMailDrop"/>
      </smtp>
    </mailSettings>
  </system.net>

This will result in the e-mails being created as files in the specified directory. You can even then load the files and verify them as part of a unit test.

(As codekaizen points out, this can also be done in code if you don’t mind modifying the code/hardcoding the drop folder and having the behavior differing in debug/release mode.)