How the Gradwell Mail Forwarding system works

Article Number: 72 | Rating: Unrated | Last Updated: Thu, Sep 23, 2010 at 4:23 PM

Getting Started

Mail forwarding works by having a default rule for the mail for the domain name, and then by splitting off the specifics.

Your default address can either be an email address, e.g. user@domain.dom, or a domain, e.g. domain2.dom, or subdomain, e.g. sub.domain.dom.

We forward all mail for *@domain.suffix to you@youremail.suffix, or we will rewrite the domain, or you can have specific rules for different people.

There are no limits to the number of rules you can have.

Basic Configuration

Rules are managed one by one. Once you've added a specific rule, a new box will appear below it for the next specific rule. There is no ordering to rules.

If you just want to rewrite your mail to another domain name, simply enter that domain name "domain.dom" or "yournode.isp.dom" in the default rule box.

In the case of a subdomain, all mail will be rewritten to the subdomain. For example, if you set the default rule for domain.dom to be subdomain.isp.co.uk then mail for joe@domain.dom will be sent to joe@subdomain.isp.co.uk.

(You can also, obviously, rewrite domain1.com to domain2.com)

With plain redirection:

fred@domain.co.uk -> you@domain.isp.co.uk
jim@domain.co.uk -> you@domain.isp.co.uk
in fact, everything@domain.co.uk -> you@domain.isp.co.uk

With domain rewriting:

fred@domain.co.uk -> fred@domain.isp.co.uk
jim@domain.co.uk -> jim@domain.isp.co.uk
in fact, something@domain.co.uk -> something@domain.isp.co.uk

With rules, you can have any number of different people, and the default:

fred@domain.co.uk -> fred@domain.isp.co.uk
jim@domain.co.uk -> jim@domain.otherisp.co.uk
jane@domain.co.uk -> jane@work.co.uk
joan@domain.co.uk -> joan@hotmail.com
everything else, *@domain.co.uk -> another@email.com (default is redirect) or something@domain.co.uk -> something@domain.isp.co.uk (default is rewrite)

You can choose either of these options and change between then at any time.

Advanced Configuration

Subdomains

We also allow you to accept mail for *.domain.co.uk. Normally, this mail is handled using its own set of rules and is treated exactly like a normal domain on its own. To use this, you must set up separate forwarding rules for each subdomain, as for any other domain, by adding it to the mail forwarding management page.

At present it is not possible to create a wildcard subdomain forwarding rule - you must create a set of rules for each domain individually. Of course if all subdomains should behave the same way then you may enter "sub1.domain.co.uk" as the default rule for "sub2.domain.co.uk" and your domains will work as expected.

Multiple Destinations:

If you want to send mail to multiple addresses, enter them as comma separated values. e.g: user@domain.com,user2@domain2.com,user3@domain3.com.

Filtering Headers

We add an X-forwarding-to header to all the mail indicating the address that the e-mail is really for, so that you may filter it in to mail boxes on your own mail system.

"Black Holes" or Rejecting Addresses

If you wish to not receive email for a specific email address then you may black hole that address. Forward mail for the address to devnull@gradwell.net, where it will simply be deleted.

Alternatively, you may leave any rule blank, and mail to that address will be returned to the sender with a "no such user" message.

Postmaster Address

It is an Internet requirement that all domains have a "postmaster" user name. Therefore, if you do not create such a rule in a given domain, mail for "postmaster" at that domain will be redirected to your "master" email address (the one you use to login to the control panel).

Bouncing mail

Please try not to bounce mail and particularly spam mail. This tends to be from bogus senders anyway and thus clogs up our mail spools for 4 weeks, until it "triple bounces" and ends up in our administrators' email boxes.

It is much simpler just to get rid of the mail than to try and take revenge on a spammer. If you want to junk mail, send it to devnull@gradwell.net

Wild card matching

Our system will also let you do some clever wildcard matching. For example, if in the left hand column ("inbound address") you put z* then this will match all email addresses beginning with the letter z and apply the rule to them. You can place the * (our system uses a * as a wildcard) anywhere in the inbound email address. The most specific forwarding rule matches first.

Suffix Match

Suffix match enables you to match on and retain any suffix on the username part. For example, suppose you have a forwarding rule:

robert@mydomain.dom -> bob@example.com

Mail to robert@mydomain.dom will be forwarded to bob@example.com as usual. However mail to, robert-test@mydomain.dom will be forwarded to bob-test@example.com. Notice how the suffix is matched and then appended to the user part of the destination address. This works for any suffix preceded by a hyphen.

Typically this is used when delivering mail to .qmail files, e.g. as part of your shell account, where you have mail handled by a program, or for using mailing lists (enabling suffix match is a requirement for ezmlm use).

It is important to realize that using suffix match is completely independent from wildcard matches, and one option does not require the other. Suffix match is rarely needed except for ezmlm mailing lists.

For example:

Rule: bob@mydomain.dom -> abc123@example.com WITH suffix match
bob@mydomain.dom forwards to abc123@example.com
bobby@mydomain.dom does NOT match on this rule - suffix match only matches a suffix preceded by a hyphen. To match ANY suffix use a wildcard, as below.
bob-test@mydomain.dom forwards to abc123-test@example.com