Aliases

This settings page is only available to domain administrators.

An email alias is essentially a forwarding email address that can be used to forward messages to a single address or multiple email addresses. Aliases are most commonly used for departments or groups of individuals, like a small team of people working on a project or task. For example, in a working environment with multiple email addresses, the office may want to make a central email address that distributes messages to all personnel. The alias, workplace@example.com, can be made for messages to be sent and then distributed to all the employees.

Note: Even though an alias acts as an email address, users cannot log in to an alias like they do a standard email address; there is not a mailbox associated with the alias and no email is ever actually stored for the alias itself. Instead, emails are simply sent to the list of addresses provided for the alias and are stored in the mailboxes of the individual users.

When viewing the Users tab, the following information is listed:

• Account - The "username" of the alias, which is used when sending an email to the alias, chatting the alias (if available), etc.
• Display Name - The friendly name given to the alias.
• Description - A brief description/explanation of the alias.
• Email Addresses - The total number of actual users associated to the alias. E.g., 6 would mean 6 email addresses are used for the alias.
• Show in GAL - Denotes whether the alias will be displayed in the Global Address List (GAL).
• All Users - Denotes whether the alias incorporates all users of the domain as opposed to individual email addresses. E.g. an "Office" alias would probably include all users.
• Send From - Denotes whether users are able to send from the alias.
• Show in GAL - Denotes whether the alias will be displayed as part of the Global Address List.
• Show in Chat - Denotes whether the alias will appear when using Live Chat.
• Catch-All - Denotes whehter the alias is marked as a "catch-all", which is NOT recommended.

Adding Aliases

Whether creating a new alias or editing an existing one, the following options will be available:

• Name - The name of the alias. This name will be used to create the email alias address. For example, if you want to use the email alias address "info@example.com", you'd simply use "info" for the Name. (You do NOT need to add the domain to the end of the name -- that's supplied automatically.)
• Display Name -- This is the friendly name used for the Alias. When used in conjunction with "Allow alias users to send from this alias", this is the display name that appears as the sender in the recipient's inbox.
• Email Addresses (one per line) - Type the full email address(es) of the user(s) who should receive emails sent to this alias.
• Internal use only - Enable this option to only allow emails to be delivered to accounts that are hosted within the same SmarterMail server.
• Include all domain users - Enable this option to include all domain users automatically in the alias. Note: This option does not override the email addresses listed in the Email Address box. If selected, all domain users will be included in addition to the users entered in the Email Addresses text box.
• Alias can be used as from address in webmail - Enable this option to allow alias users (those users/accounts that are part of the alias) to manually change their From address to the alias email address on new emails and replies. When a user sends mail as an alias, the recipient will see the alias's Display Name as the email friendly from address. If the Display Name for the alias is blank, the user's Display Name shows.
• Show in Global Address List - Enable this option to display the alias in the Global Address List. Note: This feature is only available when using SmarterMail Enterprise.
• Show as a room in chat (Enterprise Only) - Enable this option to allow the alias to appear as a room in Chat. Enabling aliases for chat means that chats can be sent to the alias, and everyone in that alias, from within webmail as well as when using third-party chat clients.
• Use as domain catch-all - Enable this option to use the alias address as a catch-all for the domain. 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. Note: This option will only be visible if the system administrator has enabled catch-all as a feature for the domain. In addition, only one email alias can be assigned as the domain catch-all at a time. Enabling a different alias as the catch-all will override any assignment already in place.

A Note About Catch-All Aliases

A catch-all alias is simply that: an alias that catches all email sent to a domain that doesn't correspond to an actual user. Catch-all aliases can be useful as long as they are monitored and kept clear of unwanted email. However, due to the nature of email and the amount of spam that is sent every day, a catch-all can become a burden to email systems and to domain administrators. Therefore, it is suggested that they be used sparingly, or not at all if it can be avoided. Furthermore, it is important to never set an autoresponder for a user that the catch-all forwards to as it may result in backscatter, causing additional bandwidth usage and potentially causing your domain to be blacklisted.