Forward email to another address (forwarders, catch-all not recommended)

Do you want mail to an address on your domain to automatically arrive at another address? You do this with a forwarder. Below you can read how to create one, why forwarding to Gmail or Outlook often goes wrong, and why we advise against a catch-all.

What is a forwarder?

A forwarder sends all mail for an address, such as sales@yourdomain.com, on to one or more other addresses, such as info@yourdomain.com. A forwarder is not a mailbox itself: nothing is stored and you can't log in to it. Handy for extra addresses without their own mailbox, for an old address that needs to keep working, or to have the same mail arrive with multiple colleagues.

Creating a forwarder in DirectAdmin

If your domain is part of a hosting package or email package, you create the forwarder in DirectAdmin:

1. Log in to DirectAdmin: in My WebOké, go to My Products and click DirectAdmin next to your package.
2. Go to E-Mail Manager › Forwarders. If needed, select the domain in the top right.
3. Click Create Mail Forwarder.
4. At New Forwarder Name, type the part before the @, for example sales, and click Add.
5. At Add Destination, type the full address the mail should go to, and click Add. Repeat this for more destinations.
6. Check the preview and click Create. The forwarder works immediately.

In My WebOké, under My Domains › Forwardings, you'll find an Open DirectAdmin button that logs you in immediately. The AI assistant in My WebOké can also create a forwarding for you.

Only a domain name, without a package?

If you only have the domain name with WebOké, you set up the email forwarding yourself under My Domains › Forwardings. Select your domain, enter the address on your domain and the destination address at New email forwarding, and click Add. See Email and domain forwardings.

Forwarding to Gmail, Outlook, or Hotmail

We advise against this. Free mail services often see forwarded mail as suspicious, because the mail from the original sender suddenly comes from our server. That mail then ends up in spam or gets rejected, and forwarded spam also counts against our server.

• For a domain without a package, forwarding to Gmail, Outlook, Hotmail, Yahoo, iCloud, and similar free services is blocked.
• It's better to read your mail directly: via webmail, or by adding the address to your phone or the Gmail app. See How do I go to the Webmail?
• If you still forward from DirectAdmin, turn on the spam filter so less spam gets forwarded.

Catch-all: better not to

With a catch-all, all mail to non-existent addresses on your domain arrives at a single address. We advise against this: spammers send mail en masse to made-up addresses, and with a catch-all you receive all of it. If you also forward the catch-all to another address, you're forwarding that spam along with it, which harms the reputation of our mail server.

So leave Advanced Features › Catch-All Email set to Disable Catch-All. Want to catch a few extra addresses, such as quote@ or a common typo? Create separate forwarders for those instead. More explanation: Catch-All Email: mail to non-existent addresses.

Sending mail from a forwarder address

Do you want to send mail as sales@yourdomain.com from your john@yourdomain.com mailbox? That's possible if sales@ is a forwarder that forwards to john@. Then set up sales@ in your mail program as an additional sender address. Without that forwarder, you'll get the error message Account ... can not send emails from .... Read Sending mail from multiple aliases.

Forwarders to :blackhole:

Do you see forwarders for postmaster@, abuse@, or webmaster@ to :blackhole:? These block spam to those well-known addresses. Leave them in place, or forward them to your own address. See What are the blackhole forwarders?

Do you want to forward website visitors instead of mail? Then read Creating a forwarding to another domain (hosting package).

Detailed explanation with screenshots: Forwarders: forwarding mail to another address in the DirectAdmin manual.