READ: Default E-Mail / Catch all update

[GatorDaveC]

Hello,
The “Default E-Mail” feature in Cpanel is going to be disabled on all Shared and Reseller servers as of March 29th, 2007. This feature is contributing to major e-mail issues, including e-mail delay when it's enabled and it doesn't need to be.

Catchall e-mail causes multiple e-mail addresses to be listed on spam lists, which flood the servers, and sometimes causes e-mail interruption for other clients. This is actually going to be a very good thing as far as server wide-mail goes.

We understand that some of you will absolutely need this feature. We can enable this if you must have it, if you email support to request it.

Please note: If you had previously configured a catch-all address, it will not be affected by this change.

[Serra]

Cool, its about time. Catch all addresses are a huge problem... glad to seem them go away.

[Rotag]

Originally Posted by GatorDaveC

Catchall e-mail causes multiple e-mail addresses to be listed on spam lists, which flood the servers, and sometimes causes e-mail interruption for other clients. This is actually going to be a very good thing as far as server wide-mail goes.

I was in the midst of testing the "blackhole" option just before HostGator switched of the ability to change the option. (I had configured the option so that all email sent to an invalid address would be sent to a "blackhole" without a bounce message being returned.) So now the "blackhole" option still appears to on, and I nolonger have a way to turn off.

Does my use of the "blackhole" option cause problems for HostGator?

[quietFinn]

A pretty good article about "Why you should use :fail:": http://www.configserver.com/free/fail.html

[mika76]

How will this affect me if I'm using the default email address given to me? (The username of the cpanel user)

[Rotag]

Originally Posted by quietFinn

A pretty good article about "Why you should use :fail:": http://www.configserver.com/free/fail.html

I'm sold. Thanks!

[wsuccess]

Now I'm confused. First I penned an angry rant about changing the way things work without sufficient notification. That was unjustified and I deleted it, as I hadn't taken in the last line in the notice saying that previous catch-alls were unaffected. I tested and my catch-alls are still coming through, so thank you for that!

Now I'd like to be a better citizen to help the site run more efficiently. So I can set up a bunch of specific email addresses and check them in my email reader explicitly. No problem.

How do I turn off the catch-all after I'm done? It looks like that section on cPanel is completely disabled.

Thanks, and my apologies to anyone who briefly saw my knee-jerk message. </anger>

[quietFinn]

Originally Posted by mika76

How will this affect me if I'm using the default email address given to me? (The username of the cpanel user)

It does not affect that at all.

[quietFinn]

Originally Posted by wsuccess

How do I turn off the catch-all after I'm done? It looks like that section on cPanel is completely disabled.

GatorDaveC said:

We understand that some of you will absolutely need this feature. We can enable this if you must have it, if you email support to request it.

I am pretty sure that works the other way too, i.e. when you are ready just email support and request it

[patwa]

Hello.

I too welcome this move. Catch-all addresses were OK in the beginning when you first had a web presence and wanted to be reached no matter what address was used but once the site became more developed spam increased as anything@yourdomain could be used to get in touch and there was no way to block it. Now it's really just an inconvenience. But I do commend you on giving users the choice of contacting support to have it individually enabled should they need it.

H.

[kmaw]

Originally Posted by wsuccess

How do I turn off the catch-all after I'm done? It looks like that section on cPanel is completely disabled.

You could always just set it the catch-all to :fail: yourself. Or use fin's suggestion.

Great move on HG's part here.

[Pitrow]

Originally Posted by kmaw

You could always just set it the catch-all to :fail: yourself. Or use fin's suggestion.

Great move on HG's part here.

Except for the fact that that option is no longer available in the cpanel, you can't even get to it to change it yourself. You need to contact support for that.

This is what you get when you click on the "default address" link in cpanel now:

The Default E-Mail/Catch-All feature has been disabled by default due to it contributing large amounts of e-mail flooding from Spam. Please contact support if you need this feature enabled or need further assistance.

[kmaw]

Guess us dedicated server people should shutup... or me... lol

[Andeavour]

I know it's probably bad practice, but we use the catch-all mailbox in conjucnction with Exchange. Our Exchange server deals with the collection of mail from the catch all, then parcells it out to the appropriate users based on the email addresses used (and consequently filters out most of the spam by simply dumping everything that is not a recognised e-mail address). Several of our customers have opted for the same option where they are using Exchange to deal with their company emails.

If you have 40 or so email addresses, it can be difficult to set up all these accounts on a regular basis (especially if there is some rapid turnover of staff).

[Serra]

If you are using an Exchange server, you should use the MX record, not a catch-all. There is no need for anything to be setup on the machine itself.

[OneClick]

If you're using an exchange server to handle your email, why don't you just change the MX record to send mail directly to the exchange server and skip the Hostgator server all together?

Just curious...

[Serra]

Originally Posted by OneClick

If you're using an exchange server to handle your email, why don't you just change the MX record to send mail directly to the exchange server and skip the Hostgator server all together?

At least someone is reading my posts.

[Andeavour]

I'm reading them too Serra. Thanks for the advice, I'll do that

[marlaparker]

This thread is related to my question, so I'll try asking it here first.

Before the default thing was turned off, I set it up so that unrecognized addresses would go to two mailboxes, my own and a dummy one that my husband downloads when he chooses to.

In order to catch people who sell our email addresses without permission, we routinely give out vendor@ourdomain as the email address, rather than our actual email. Then if we ever get spam to that vendor@ourdomain address, or if someone other than vendor uses it, we will know that vendor sold our email address and we can complain to them.

My question:
Is this a bad practice and if so, why? I don't see how it could cause problems for hostgator.

[regentronique]

I am with HostGator since two weeks ago and i understand their concern about spamming, they take this quite seriously. I am the first to be happy with their strategic restrictions, because shared hosting is better that way.

I really believe these days, that this way to track infamous email resellers is a good idea. If more people were taking the time to write complaints there will be less abuse...

I do that myself, i also have set a "filter" in cPanel to redirect some specific email to a dedicated mailbox. I am writing in my spare time a script in PHP that will act on all entering eMails and decide if they should be dropped, redirected or received normally on my own criterias.

You will have to ask HostGator with a ticket to enable your "catch all" function. Ask also for enabling the "filter function" while you are there...

Keep the good work!

[eLIANT]

Originally Posted by marlaparker

In order to catch people who sell our email addresses without permission, we routinely give out vendor@ourdomain as the email address, rather than our actual email. Then if we ever get spam to that vendor@ourdomain address, or if someone other than vendor uses it, we will know that vendor sold our email address and we can complain to them.

You can employ this technique using auto-forwarders instead of catch-all.

Before submitting your email address to an online subscription, take a minute, go to cPanel, and set up an auto-forward to your regular email address. No need to create an email account, just an auto-forward. Then return to the form, enter this new address and proceed with your subscription.

The auto-forwards I create for this purpose of the form:
"sub-vendor.mydomain.com"

That way I know it is a subscription dummy account and the vendor it is for. I have about 20, including one for the free "Ping" magazine we get compliments of HG.

[regentronique]

Hello eLIANT,

The problem with your solution is that you have to prepare everything in advance.

In the case you go to a computer exposition and have to give eMail to 40 boots for any reason, you could invent whatever email like "JoeBlow45@MyDomain.com" even if you know it do not exist. That way you could remember that you gaved it at "boot 45".

That way you can have thousands of different names with a clue in it. Easier to manage when discovering them in the default mailbox.

[GatorDavid]

Originally Posted by marlaparker

This thread is related to my question, so I'll try asking it here first.

Before the default thing was turned off, I set it up so that unrecognized addresses would go to two mailboxes, my own and a dummy one that my husband downloads when he chooses to.

In order to catch people who sell our email addresses without permission, we routinely give out vendor@ourdomain as the email address, rather than our actual email. Then if we ever get spam to that vendor@ourdomain address, or if someone other than vendor uses it, we will know that vendor sold our email address and we can complain to them.

My question:
Is this a bad practice and if so, why? I don't see how it could cause problems for hostgator.

One account with catchall enabled won't hurt the server much, however imagine an entire server of shared/reseller accounts with catchalls enabled.

What ends up happening is email from spammers is accepted into the mail queue, and processed/delivered to the correct mailbox- when normally it would just be bounced back as a fail.

We occasionally run into issues where spam into a catchall drives the server load up like crazy (on just one account!)- and it hurts the customers who share the box with you.

[regentronique]

I totally agree with you David, that if someone start to get more than 25 emails per week they should consider another solution. This is a solution for a LOW TRAFIC situation. This is my case and the case of Marla from what i have read.

Like i said previously i totally approve that HostGator keep the cPanel catch-all function disabled by default.

[UrbanVision]

Hmmm....
I am a avid user of of default address, and I use it quite often for many of my sites. This change honestly affected me directly. What I would like to know is this: If I switch my email over to google apps, and use their catch all, that wouldn't affect anything with my server, correct??