Enable or Disable Catch-Alls

 Created Date: 4/19/2013 12:00:00 AM |  User Level: Regular User |  Views: 5,399

A catch-all alias is an email address that will catch any incoming email sent to an invalid address on a domain. Instead of bouncing the message back to the sender, the message will be stored in the mailbox that is assigned as the catch-all account.

If you find that customers frequently send emails to accounts that do not exist, setting up a catch-all alias may be beneficial. However, the use of a catch-all alias has the disadvantage of allowing spammers to send unwanted messages to random addresses, which can stress the mail server and affect performance.

Enabling a Catch-alls

To enable catch-alls for a domain in SmarterMail, follow these directions:

  1. Log in to SmarterMail as the system administrator
  2. Click the Domains icon
  3. Select the desired domain in the navigation pane
  4. Click Edit in the content pane toolbar. The domain settings will load in a popup window
  5. Click the Features tab
  6. Select the Catch-All Alias checkbox
  7. Click Save
  8. Assigning a Catch-all Alias to a Mailbox

Then you will need to create a catch-all alias for the domain and assign it to a specific mailbox. To do so, follow these steps:

  1. Log in to SmarterMail as the domain administrator
  2. Click the Settings icon
  3. Expand the Domain Settings folder in the navigation pane
  4. Click Aliases
  5. Click Set Catch-all in the content pane toolbar
  6. Select the alias you would like to use as the catch-all
  7. Click Save

NOTE: It is important to never set an auto-responder on an email account that the catch-all forwards to, as it may result in backscatter. This can cause your domain to be blacklisted. In addition, additional bandwidth usage will result. If you do not see the option for adding a catch-all, please contact your system administrator as they may have disabled the option.