How to create an email forwarder

A forwarder takes mail sent to one address and copies it straight on to another mailbox, without needing storage or a login of its own. It is the right choice whenever you want an address to exist — sales@yourdomain.com, say — without managing a separate inbox for it.

Creating a forwarder

1. Open the email section of your control panel

   Forwarders are usually listed alongside mailboxes in the same area.

2. Choose to add a forwarder

   Enter the address you want to receive mail — this does not need to be an existing mailbox — and the destination address it should be copied to.

3. Save

   Mail sent to the forwarding address is now delivered to the destination as well, usually within moments.

What a forwarder does and does not do

• It copies incoming mail on. Nothing is stored at the forwarding address itself — there is no inbox to check there.
• It does not change who a reply appears to come from. Replying to a forwarded message from the destination mailbox sends the reply from that mailbox's own address, not the original forwarding address, unless the destination mailbox is separately configured to send as that address.
• It can point anywhere. The destination can be another mailbox on the same domain, or an entirely different email address at another provider.

Forwarder versus catch-all

A forwarder handles one specific address you define. A catch-all address handles every address at the domain, including ones nobody set up on purpose. Use a forwarder when you know exactly which address you want to redirect; use a catch-all only if you specifically want to capture everything else too, including typos and guessed addresses, along with the spam that tends to come with them.

If forwarded mail is not arriving

• Check the destination address is typed correctly — a typo here silently sends mail nowhere rather than producing an obvious error.
• Check the destination mailbox is not full. Forwarded mail is refused the same as any other if the destination has reached its mailbox quota.
• Check the destination's own spam folder, since forwarded mail can sometimes be treated with more suspicion by the receiving mail provider than mail sent directly.

Forwarders are created and removed instantly and have no effect on the rest of your email setup, so they are safe to experiment with — remove one at any time from the same screen it was created on if it is no longer needed.