How to check email works without using SMTP

Testing code that sends email has always been a pain. You had to set up a SMTP service just to test that your .NET application sends the e-mail correctly.

However, there is a way to send e-mails with no SMTP server set up. Just configure your .NET application to drop e-mails into a specified folder instead of sending them via SMTP server:

<system.net>
<mailSettings>
<smtp deliveryMethod="SpecifiedPickupDirectory">
<specifiedPickupDirectory pickupDirectoryLocation="c:\Test\" />
</smtp>
</mailSettings>
</system.net>

This will instruct SmtpClient class to generate mail message, save it as .eml file and drop it into c:\Test\ folder.

Referenced by http://dotnettipoftheday.org/tips/smtp-delivery-method-SpecifiedPickupDirectory.aspx