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 of the employees.
Note: Even though an alias acts as an email address, users cannot login 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.
To access the email aliases for the domain, log in as a Domain Administrator and click on the Domain Settings icon. Click on Accounts in the navigation pane, then Aliases tab.
To create a new email alias, click New. 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 MailWire 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.
- Show as a room in chat - Enable this option to allow the alias to appear as a room in Group Chat. Enabling aliases for chat means that instant messages can be sent to the alias, and everyone in that alias, from within webmail as well as when using third-party chat clients.
A Note About Catch-All Aliases
A catch-all alias is simply that: an alias that catches all emails sent to a domain that doesn't correspond to an actual account. 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 are used sparingly, or not at all if it can be avoided. Furthermore, it is important to never set an autoresponder on an email account that the catch-all forwards to, as it may result in backscatter, causing additional bandwidth usage and potentially causing your domain to be blacklisted.
