Can I create a catch-all email address?: Difference between revisions

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<html>Catch-all email addresses are disabled by default on all of our shared servers because of the large amount of spam they tend to receive. You can create catch-all functionality by following these steps.....<br /><br />1) You would login to your cPanel and create an email account for [email protected] (or whatever email address you want).<br /><br />Here is our knowlegdebase article on how to create an email account through your cPanel:<br /><br /><a title="Creating an Email Account" href="https://esupport.acenet-inc.net/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/165/4/creating-an-email-account">Creating an Email Account</a><br /><br />2) Then, you would create multiple email forwarders for other email addresses to be forwarded to your [email protected] email account.<br /><br />Example:<br /><br />sales@yourdomain.com -> master@yourdomain.com<br /><br />billing@yourdomain.com -> master@yourdomain.com<br /><br />support@yourdomain.com -> master@yourdomain.com<br /><br />etc...<br /><br />Here is our knowledgebase article on how to create an email forwarder:<br /><br /><a title="Adding an Email Forwarder" href="https://esupport.acenet-inc.net/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/160/4/adding-an-email-forwarder">Adding an Email Forwarder</a><br /><br />Then, to check your email, you would use the following information:<br /><br />username: [email protected]<br />password: password for your master@yourdomain.com email account</html> [[Category:Technical Support FAQ]]
Catch-all email addresses are disabled by default on all of our shared servers because of the large amount of spam they tend to receive. You can emulate catch-all functionality by setting up email forwarders to catch all normally unrouted mail.
 
 
[1] Login to your cPanel and [[Creating an Email Account|create an email account]] for the address you would like to act like a catch-all.
 
For example, you might create the email account "catchall@example.com"
 
[2] [[Adding an Email Forwarder|Create multiple email forwarders]] for other email addresses to be forwarded to your [email protected] email account.
 
Example:
 
sales@example.com -> catchall@example.com
billing@example.com -> catchall@example.com
support@example.com -> catchall@example.com
etc...
 
[3] To check your email, login using the credentials of the email account you created above in [1].  This account will receive email sent to any of the addresses you configured as forwarders in [2]. 
 
 
Using this method, you can setup a single email account to catch mail sent to various other addresses.  The benefit of this method is that you are not catching unwanted mail sent to bogus email addresses.  It's a common practice of spammers to try "Dictionary Attacks" against a wide variety of email addresses.  A spammer might use a dictionary of common email addresses and attempt to deliver spam to them.  You'll commonly see spammers send spam to:
 
amanda@example.com
...
zeus@example.com
 
and so on. If you have a true catch-all email address setup, you would receive mail sent to any of these email addresses even though there is no mailbox or forwarder configured for them.  By limiting your catch-all to only those forwarders you setup, you can still receive mail from multiple email addresses in a single location without receiving the spam sent to dictionary style lists.
 
[[Category:Technical Support FAQ]]

Latest revision as of 15:17, 3 October 2012

Catch-all email addresses are disabled by default on all of our shared servers because of the large amount of spam they tend to receive. You can emulate catch-all functionality by setting up email forwarders to catch all normally unrouted mail.


[1] Login to your cPanel and create an email account for the address you would like to act like a catch-all.

For example, you might create the email account "[email protected]"

[2] Create multiple email forwarders for other email addresses to be forwarded to your [email protected] email account.

Example:

[email protected] -> [email protected] [email protected] -> [email protected] [email protected] -> [email protected] etc...

[3] To check your email, login using the credentials of the email account you created above in [1]. This account will receive email sent to any of the addresses you configured as forwarders in [2].


Using this method, you can setup a single email account to catch mail sent to various other addresses. The benefit of this method is that you are not catching unwanted mail sent to bogus email addresses. It's a common practice of spammers to try "Dictionary Attacks" against a wide variety of email addresses. A spammer might use a dictionary of common email addresses and attempt to deliver spam to them. You'll commonly see spammers send spam to:

[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] ... [email protected]

and so on. If you have a true catch-all email address setup, you would receive mail sent to any of these email addresses even though there is no mailbox or forwarder configured for them. By limiting your catch-all to only those forwarders you setup, you can still receive mail from multiple email addresses in a single location without receiving the spam sent to dictionary style lists.