Forwarding, aliases and auto-reply
Share one address between people, send copies to another address, catch mail to unknown addresses, and answer automatically while you're away.
Updated 22 Oct 20262 min read
Three tools for mail that isn't one address for one person: aliases share an address, forwarding sends copies elsewhere, and the automatic reply answers while you're away.
Aliases: one address, several people
An alias is another address of your domain that delivers to one or more mailboxes. orders@ can reach Asha and Juma, and neither has to share a password.
Open the project, then Email.
Under Aliases, choose Add alias.
Type the address, and choose the mailboxes it delivers to.
Choose Save alias.
A domain can have up to 200 aliases. Every domain keeps postmaster@, abuse@ and hostmaster@ for a mailbox or an alias, as email's own rules ask.
Forwarding to another address
A mailbox, or an alias, can send a copy of each email to up to 5 other addresses.
Open the mailbox, then Forwarding.
Choose Add address, and type it.
Choose whether the mailbox keeps its own copy.
An address outside your domains must confirm first: we email it a link, and forwarding starts only once someone there clicks it. Until then it shows Waiting for confirmation. This stops anyone from signing a stranger up to receive mail. Forwarding outside also starts only after your account's first top-up.
Only clean mail is forwarded: spam is caught first, so your domain's good name isn't used to pass it on. Forwarded mail is marked so that services like Gmail accept it instead of filing it as spam.
Mail to unknown addresses
Under Mail to unknown addresses, mail to an address that doesn't exist is refused, which is the default. You can choose a mailbox to deliver it to instead. Catching everything brings more spam, so most businesses leave it off.
The automatic reply
Open the mailbox, then Automatic reply.
Turn on Send an automatic reply.
Write its Subject and Message. Choose From and Until dates if it's for a holiday.
Each sender gets it once every 4 days, and never mailing lists or other automatic mail, so two away messages never answer each other forever. A mailbox's user can set it themselves, in the webmail's settings too.
Example: Asha goes on holiday
Asha's away for a week. In her mailbox she sets an automatic reply: "I'm away until Monday 3 November. Orders go on as usual: write to orders@duka.co.tz." She also forwards a copy of her mail to her personal address, which she confirms from the link we send it. The orders@ alias keeps reaching Juma, so no order waits for her.