Domain for multiple emails and forwarding?

[HowardRoark]

As online everything pretty much becomes increasingly unavoidable (or difficult to avoid!) I find myself more keen to prevent spamming and possible fraud attacks etc. It seems to me that way too many companies are a bit, er, slack with data protection issues and I can only see this getting worse over the years.

So I want to keep a 'core' gmail address for family/friends/very important stuff (e.g., banking) and I've been having a look at alternatives for using multiple email addresses which I can forward to that core address or a sub-core address to deal with everything else. The gmail address is set up for 2 factor authentication but I don't think the "add a + to the address to create more addresses" is a robust way of achieving what I want!

Essentially I want to be able to assign an email address for Retailer A, a different one for Retailer B etc. etc. I don't want a limit on the number of such email addresses I can use: if I start having problems with any one of them I want to simply delete it.

I don't mind paying for the facility. I've seen prices of £70-£100 for a 5 year domain name with WHOIS-removal. I'm seen various possible domain name providers: 123-reg; Proton Mail; names.co.uk; 1&1; vidahost . . .

But how does this work in practice? Once the domain name is bought and registered who provides the unlimited multiple email addressing for the bit before "@newdomainname.co.uk"? And the forwarding? Is it the outfit that has supplied the domain name?

And if, in 5 years' time, I decide to drop this and not renew the domain name, do personal details associated with the now-expired domain name remain hidden and off of WHOIS?

This is purely for email correspondence: don't need any website hosting or need it for business purposes.

Not a huge amount of info out there!

[RedSnapper]

I don't mind paying for the facility. I've seen prices of £70-£100 for a 5 year domain name with WHOIS-removal. I'm seen various possible domain name providers: 123-reg; Proton Mail; names.co.uk; 1&1; vidahost . . .

But how does this work in practice? Once the domain name is bought and registered who provides the unlimited multiple email addressing for the bit before "@newdomainname.co.uk"? And the forwarding? Is it the outfit that has supplied the domain name?

I use 123-reg for this. Once you have the domain name registered you can make up whatever prefixes you like and have them forwarded to your gmail address. There's no cost to this (other than the obvious domain registration cost) and it's pretty seamless. There's no limit to the number of prefixes you can use.

Don't know anything about whois stuff....

[Slarti]

Essentially I want to be able to assign an email address for Retailer A, a different one for Retailer B etc. etc. I don't want a limit on the number of such email addresses I can use: if I start having problems with any one of them I want to simply delete it.

I don't mind paying for the facility. I've seen prices of £70-£100 for a 5 year domain name with WHOIS-removal. I'm seen various possible domain name providers: 123-reg; Proton Mail; names.co.uk; 1&1; vidahost . . .

But how does this work in practice? Once the domain name is bought and registered who provides the unlimited multiple email addressing for the bit before "@newdomainname.co.uk"? And the forwarding? Is it the outfit that has supplied the domain name?

I use 1&1 for this and if I go into webmail I have it set that I either login to me, or I login to my catchall which deals with anything other me @ mydomain.

Both or either could be set to forward, if I wanted to, but I don't.

As for "creating" a new name for a supplier, or whoever, I just give them whatever I want them to have, eg mns @ mydomain and the catchall handles it.

I use their blacklist if there is something I no longer want, eg email addressed to m.mullen @ mydomain Who he? Never heard of him, didn't give out the emails address, especially not to Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce.

Slarti

[genou]

As online everything pretty much becomes increasingly unavoidable (or difficult to avoid!) I find myself more keen to prevent spamming and possible fraud attacks etc. It seems to me that way too many companies are a bit, er, slack with data protection issues and I can only see this getting worse over the years.

So I want to keep a 'core' gmail address for family/friends/very important stuff (e.g., banking) and I've been having a look at alternatives for using multiple email addresses which I can forward to that core address or a sub-core address to deal with everything else. The gmail address is set up for 2 factor authentication but I don't think the "add a + to the address to create more addresses" is a robust way of achieving what I want!

Essentially I want to be able to assign an email address for Retailer A, a different one for Retailer B etc. etc. I don't want a limit on the number of such email addresses I can use: if I start having problems with any one of them I want to simply delete it.

I don't mind paying for the facility. I've seen prices of £70-£100 for a 5 year domain name with WHOIS-removal. I'm seen various possible domain name providers: 123-reg; Proton Mail; names.co.uk; 1&1; vidahost . . .

But how does this work in practice? Once the domain name is bought and registered who provides the unlimited multiple email addressing for the bit before "@newdomainname.co.uk"? And the forwarding? Is it the outfit that has supplied the domain name?

And if, in 5 years' time, I decide to drop this and not renew the domain name, do personal details associated with the now-expired domain name remain hidden and off of WHOIS?

This is purely for email correspondence: don't need any website hosting or need it for business purposes.

Not a huge amount of info out there!

Look for "catch all email forwarding". It is processed by your domain supplier, and not all offer it. If you drop the domain, the accounts will become invalid and die ( unless someone else buys the domain , in which case they will be in a position to get all mail to that domain going forward, which you might want to think about) .

123 offer it; I get it from them and uk2, but I'm not sure uk2 offer it to new customers.

[chas49]

I use 123-reg for this. Once you have the domain name registered you can make up whatever prefixes you like and have them forwarded to your gmail address. There's no cost to this (other than the obvious domain registration cost) and it's pretty seamless. There's no limit to the number of prefixes you can use.

Are you sure?

123-REG says:

There’s no limit to the number of addresses and you can host as many as you like. Every new one is sold separately, and you’ll get a discount if you buy in bulk.

Purely as an alternative illustration, 1&1 include unlimited email forwarding with each domain. I would have thought 123 would do the same but I can't find that option on the website!

[RedSnapper]

I use 123-reg for this. Once you have the domain name registered you can make up whatever prefixes you like and have them forwarded to your gmail address. There's no cost to this (other than the obvious domain registration cost) and it's pretty seamless. There's no limit to the number of prefixes you can use.

Are you sure?

123-REG says:

There’s no limit to the number of addresses and you can host as many as you like. Every new one is sold separately, and you’ll get a discount if you buy in bulk.

Purely as an alternative illustration, 1&1 include unlimited email forwarding with each domain. I would have thought 123 would do the same but I can't find that option on the website!

Yes, I'm sure. They effectively offer two services:

- hosting email, which is what your above quote refers to, where you'd have a mailbox with 123 and you could also forward them (this service, the email hosting, costs)

- and you can purely forward email traffic. Within the 123 control panel it's actually under domain forwarding rather than under the email handling section which is a little counter intuitive.

I have a number of domains with them and use both domain forwarding and email forwarding extensively.

[Sussexlad]

- and you can purely forward email traffic. Within the 123 control panel it's actually under domain forwarding rather than under the email handling section which is a little counter intuitive.

Yes, I use 123 like that and don't pay anything other than the few pounds to register the domain.

[HowardRoark]

Thank you everybody for all the replies: very useful.

Looking at my needs a bit more I think I'd be happy to pay couple of £ a month for full email hosting to take greater control (e.g., being able to reply to emails from the new email host).

Looks like it's down to 123-reg or 1&1 or (another I've come across) names.co.uk.

Names.co.uk looks to be the only one that clearly shows the ability to use multiple email addresses from one domain name email (about £2.40pm over 2 years though don't need 2 mailboxes of 2GB each). Not clear from 123-reg: seems to suggest you get 1 email address but can't find much about then using multiple aliases or prefixes to the @mydomain.com.

Can't find much that's clear on this for 1&1 either, although seems very cheap at 99p + VAT per month.

Anyone have any experience on this point for 123-reg or 1&1? Any names.co.uk users?

[superFoolish]

The 1&1 99p plan appears to be for one email address only. It's £1.99/month for 20.

I don't know if their email plans include catchall email addresses; you could ask via their live chat. Be aware that if you reply to email sent to a catchall address, it will not be sent from the catchall address; it'll come from one of your configured email addresses (you can choose which one when you reply).

For what it's worth, I've been using 1&1 to manage my domains for nearly two decades, and as far as email and domain name management is concerned, they are rock-solid. I am very happy to recommend them.

I'm not keen on them for web hosting; I redirect my domain names and host my web sites elsewhere.

Their low-end web hosting plan allows for 500 configured email addresses plus catchalls (99p/month for first 12 months, then £4.99/month). You don't need to use the web hosting aspect. As always, DYOR before committing to a plan.

[mc2fool]

As for "creating" a new name for a supplier, or whoever, I just give them whatever I want them to have, eg mns @ mydomain and the catchall handles it.

I use their blacklist if there is something I no longer want, eg email addressed to m.mullen @ mydomain Who he? Never heard of him, didn't give out the emails address, especially not to Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce.

I recommend against using the catchall mechanisms and instead actually setting up a forward (to your real address) for each person/organisation you want to give an email address to.

The problem with the catchall is that once the spammers get your domain into their list they will try and find valid addresses by exhaustion, and then it won't be just the odd "m.mullen" you'll be blocking.

For example. checking the incoming delivery reports on my domain, there have been tries to send to the following (non-existent) addresses @mydomain.com in just the past 24 hours:

alexander, Alexandra1486, Alexandra258, Alexandra642, Alexandra7478, avery, ball, barry, bell, berg,
bradshaw, branch, bryant, burke, cardenas, chan, cohen, cole, Collins00164, cook, cooper, craig, cummings,
diegokreuning, dodson, dotson, ellis, erickson, estes, farmer, faulkner, fernandez, fields, flores, ford, fowler,
francis, frazier, freeman, gamble, gay, gonzales, Gray3446, gutierrez, guzman, harmon, harper, hatfield, hebert,
hendricks, higgins, holland, hopkins, howard, howe, hsiuhm, hughes, james, kelly, kim, knight, lambert,
leonard, lins, long, mack, marshall, mcconnell, Mcconnell389, mcintyre, meadows, moreno, mortensennymku, murphy,
ochoa, oneill, Palmer.83, parks, perry, peterson, ramirez, richardson, richmond, rivera, roach, rogers,
sander, schneider, schultz, shepard, simmons, simpson, Svetlana02514, Svetlana026,
Svetlana0796, Svetlana20755, Svetlana22644, Svetlana2693, Svetlana350, Svetlana443, Svetlana5194,
Svetlana556, Svetlana6490, Svetlana749, Svetlana751, Svetlana8088, svetlana8994, Svetlana973, Svetlana98368, welch

If I had the catchall turned on I'd have received all 110 of those and, of course, would have wanted to block them, but remember, that lot is in just one day. And ultimately, however many forwarded addresses you want and have to setup, there's an awful lot more unwanted addresses a catchall will get and you'll have to block -- an almost infinite number indeed!

(Re the nameNNN ones above: every time I check there are always bursts of that sort. Today it just happens to be Alexandras and Svetlanas)

[tea42]

For as long as I have had BT broadband ( many many years) I have used Yahoo's multiple email addresses to control emails from various suppliers I have had to register with. https://help.yahoo.com/kb/SLN15953.html

All emails from Yahoo are forwarded to my single private Gmail account.

I think I was allowed 50 addresses which is plenty, but I see that for non BT it's 10. So...Create more Yahoo addresses if you need more? Between them the Yahoo and Gmail spam filters totally eliminate spam. If you run out of addresses you can just delete one which doesn't interest you ( ie online bathroom fittings supplier) and create a new different one. It takes 90 days to purge the old address.

Easy peasy and free, no messing around with domains etc...

[chas49]

The 1&1 99p plan appears to be for one email address only. It's £1.99/month for 20.

I don't know if their email plans include catchall email addresses; you could ask via their live chat. Be aware that if you reply to email sent to a catchall address, it will not be sent from the catchall address; it'll come from one of your configured email addresses (you can choose which one when you reply).

For what it's worth, I've been using 1&1 to manage my domains for nearly two decades, and as far as email and domain name management is concerned, they are rock-solid. I am very happy to recommend them.

I'm not keen on them for web hosting; I redirect my domain names and host my web sites elsewhere.

Their low-end web hosting plan allows for 500 configured email addresses plus catchalls (99p/month for first 12 months, then £4.99/month). You don't need to use the web hosting aspect. As always, DYOR before committing to a plan.

I use 1&1 for my domain (I don't need the web hosting as I don't actually need a website so I can't comment on its reliability or otherwise). The domain package includes unlimited email forwarding so in effect you can have as many email addresses as you want - but only one mailbox. (In fact mine allows 5 mailboxes, but I think that's a legacy product no longer on sale).

I do have a catchall (*(at)mydomain(dot)com) and in contrast to mc2fool I hardly ever see any spam via that - possibly because it has the 1&1 Spam Filter enabled?

[mc2fool]

I do have a catchall (*(at)mydomain(dot)com) and in contrast to mc2fool I hardly ever see any spam via that - possibly because it has the 1&1 Spam Filter enabled?

Ok, so, you haven't actually checked how much your catchall is being abused and the spam filter stopping them reaching you? It it's not yet it's only a matter of time, "when" not "if", and then your spam filter will have to work overtime.

To be clear, I don't see any spam either. All of the previously listed attempts never got to me, having been bounced back to the senders with "no such user". And you know what? I have no spam filters at all. I've found that having individual forwarded addresses is enough.

If I do receive a junk email to one, the first time I just say hmmm, the second time uh-oh, and on the third I either change that address or (as is more often the case) decide it's no longer needed and just remove it. Happens once or twice a year.

I used to use a catchall but found this system much more preferable.

For as long as I have had BT broadband ( many many years) I have used Yahoo's multiple email addresses to control emails from various suppliers I have had to register with. ...
I think I was allowed 50 addresses which is plenty, but I see that for non BT it's 10.

I have a BT Yahoo account (although I don't and have never had BT broadband) still around from many many years ago which I don't use any more but keep for backup, and I've just checked and it allows 500 "disposable" addresses ... and the help says so too https://help.yahoo.com/kb/SLN16026.html

Easy peasy and free, no messing around with domains etc...

Yep, I'd agree, for anyone that doesn't want/need a domain anyway (e.g. 'cos they've also got a website)

[chas49]

I do have a catchall (*(at)mydomain(dot)com) and in contrast to mc2fool I hardly ever see any spam via that - possibly because it has the 1&1 Spam Filter enabled?

Ok, so, you haven't actually checked how much your catchall is being abused and the spam filter stopping them reaching you? It it's not yet it's only a matter of time, "when" not "if", and then your spam filter will have to work overtime.

All I'm saying is that my experience is not the same as yours.

And yes I have checked. Most (but not all) of the emails in the catchall inbox (I have it configured as one of my mailboxes with no forwarding) are spurious "Mail Delivery System" reports. There's some spam that didn't get filtered, and no email I actually wanted to see.

So I'm happy to check periodically in case there's something of value in there.

I've had the 1&1 domain for years - and it's been configured like this for a long time as well - at least 5 years, probably much longer, so if it's really a "matter of time", I'm not holding my breath.

I agree that if I had the catchall delivering email to one of my normal daily use mailboxes, then I would be seeing more spam. Your way is one way of avoiding this. Mine is another.

[mc2fool]

Most (but not all) of the emails in the catchall inbox (I have it configured as one of my mailboxes with no forwarding) are spurious "Mail Delivery System" reports. There's some spam that didn't get filtered, and no email I actually wanted to see.

Uh? Surely you mean the opposite, chas, or are we talking completely at cross purposes?!?

The topic (AIUI) is the (convenient) setting up of different email addresses for different suppliers/organisations/etc so that when (not if ) a company's systems get hacked it's only that address that gets compromised. So, if one is going down the domain route, one would give out, say, barclays@mydomain, citywire@mydomain, lemonfool@mydomain, etc, as your address to those respective organisations (hopefully choosing something a little less obvious than those...)

That's the easy part . The question is then how you receive emails sent to those addresses. One way is to explicitly set them up, on that domain, as forwarders to your "main" address, and the other way is to have a catchall.

In the latter case then surely your catchall inbox should be full of the emails you want to see; emails from Barclays, Citywire, LemonFool, etc?!?

[chas49]

Uh? Surely you mean the opposite, chas, or are we talking completely at cross purposes?!?

The topic (AIUI) is the (convenient) setting up of different email addresses for different suppliers/organisations/etc so that when (not if ) a company's systems get hacked it's only that address that gets compromised.

Ah.

Yes you're right, I'm not using my setup in the same way - or for the same thing! I don't give out unique addresses to every company, although I sometimes use the +alias feature on gmail.

So my catchall is to catch all the rubbish, and misspells - hence not bouncing them. My reason for this is that if someone incorrectly writes down my email address as (say) chalres@example.com instead of charles@example.com, the incorrectly addressed message will at least be in my catchall mailbox when I check it, rather than being bounced and expecting them to realise their error.

Apologies for the confusion!

One thing to add though, if you decide to follow mc2's process, if you give out a new address (say lemonfool@example.com) and forget to go and configure it as a forward to your "main" address, and you have the catchall set to bounce, you will lose the emails you wanted. So you do need to be disciplined enough to do both parts. (Which is probably why I don't )

[Breelander]

For as long as I have had BT broadband ( many many years) I have used Yahoo's multiple email addresses ... I think I was allowed 50 addresses which is plenty, but I see that for non BT it's 10...

For a plain-vanilla Yahoo account (ie. not a BT-Yahoo one) you can...

Create up to 500 different combinations of disposible email addresses.

https://help.yahoo.com/kb/mail-for-desk ... 16026.html

[mc2fool]

Ah.

Ah indeed .

So my catchall is to catch all the rubbish, and misspells - hence not bouncing them. My reason for this is that if someone incorrectly writes down my email address as (say) chalres@example.com instead of charles@example.com, the incorrectly addressed message will at least be in my catchall mailbox when I check it, rather than being bounced and expecting them to realise their error.

Now most folks try to avoid all the rubbish! But hey, it's ok to be different, the world needs people that are different . Tell me though, how often do you get someone sending to chalres@, etc? Also, you said earlier that, as well as some spam, your catchall also gets spurious "Mail Delivery System" reports. By that do you mean error reports for emails sent "from" bogus addresses @yourdomain to addresses that (also) don't exist?

Anyway, I think what you've said overall rather validates my point about the catchall, even if the magnitude of our experiences varies and your use of it is, ah, a little is different.

One thing to add though, if you decide to follow mc2's process, if you give out a new address (say lemonfool@example.com) and forget to go and configure it as a forward to your "main" address, and you have the catchall set to bounce, you will lose the emails you wanted. So you do need to be disciplined enough to do both parts. (Which is probably why I don't )

The discipline for me is quite simply that whenever I see I want a new address (usually while I'm filling in a signup form for some site or another), I just open another tab in my browser and set it up there and then -- indeed, it's usually essential to do so before completing the signup as most such things send you an email straight away, usually to validate your email address.

Ok, I do have a form on my on-local-disk homepage where I can enter the new name and it'll call my domain's cPanel doaddfwd page, but while convenient it only saves me a few seconds in reality....

[mc2fool]

For a plain-vanilla Yahoo account (ie. not a BT-Yahoo one) you can...

Create up to 500 different combinations of disposible email addresses.

https://help.yahoo.com/kb/mail-for-desk ... 16026.html

There seems to be an echo in here . As I said before, I have a BT Yahoo account and it allows 500 "disposable" addresses.

[Breelander]

There seems to be an echo in here . As I said before, I have a BT Yahoo account and it allows 500 "disposable" addresses.

Not quite an echo. I was pointing out this is available to ANY Yahoo account, it's not exclusively a 'BT' feature.