<OT>?? email recipients

[Rick Bowers]

At Wednesday 11/28/2007 07:17 PM, you wrote:
>Rick Bowers wrote:
> > Quite some time ago, probably on this list, I asked about having a
> > "general" email account rather than hundreds of individual accounts (I
> > run my own mail server at the house using SME Server).
> >
> > It was recommended/suggested that I could use my base mail ID, a
> > hyphen ('-') and any other string and I would still receive the
> > messages. So, I started setting up mail IDs for any company that asked
> > me for an email address as Rick-companyname at mydomain.xxx
> >
> > So, I have hundreds of email IDs like
> > Rick-AmericanExpress at mydomain.xxx and Rick-Comcast at mydomain.xxx and
> > Rick-linux-sxs at mydomain.xxx etc.
> >
> > This has all (seemingly) been working fine. All the messages arrive,
> > and I use message filters to direct the emails to individual mailboxes.
> >
> > e.g.     Rick-AmericanExpress at mydomain.xxx    -> Accounts/AmericanExpress
> >     Rick-Comcast at mydomain.xxx         -> Accounts/Comcast
> >     Rick-linux-sxs at mydomain.xxx         -> MailLists/linux-sxs.Org
> >
> > It turns out this is only working because I have setup my DNS to
> > forward any unspecified messages to a general email account
> > (Catchall at mydomain.xxx). I hadn't noticed because the filters were
> > handling all the incoming messages just fine. I assumed/understood
> > that any message sent to Rick-foo at mydomain.xxx would be automatically
> > delivered to Rick at mydomain.xxx
> >
> > I recently added a new domain name and use a different DNS provider.
> > For that provider I haven't/can't setup a "catchall account". So mail
> > messages to Rick-foo at newdomain.xxx get bounced while
> > Rick at newdomain.xxx gets delivered.
> >
> > Did I completely misunderstand the Rick-yyy at mydomain.xxx philosophy or
> > have I setup something wrong? Is there a way to do what I want without
> > specifying rules at the DNS?
>I don't think you have a DNS problem. DNS deals with everything to the
>right of the @. Which when setup correctly will deliver *@mydomain.xxx
>to which ever server is listed as your primary MX. So you should look at
>your mailserver configuration.

Yes, you are correct. I didn't really mean DNS was the issue. What I 
meant was my DNS supplier (ZoneEdit.Com) provides the ability to 
setup mail forwards, so I have rules setup on my DNS provider like:

Richard at mydomain.xxx    forwards to Rick at mydomain.xxx
RickB at mydomain.xxx              forwards to Rick at mydomain.xxx
Rick at mydomain.xxx               forwards to Rick at mydomain.xxx
dummyemail at mydomain.xxx forwards to <nowhere> (i.e., the mail is 
returned to the sender)
*@mydomain.xxx          forwards to CatchAll at mydomain.xxx


>It sounds like your DNS provider is also providing a primary MX which
>defines mailboxes and a catchall at that level and then forwards to your
>Mailserver (correct me if I'm wrong).
>
>It's possible your mainaccount-incomingSubject at mydomain.xxx syntax never
>actually worked and the catchall facility was providing the
>functionality you needed.

Yes. This seems to be the case. Well, maybe.

>So to fix it you need to either A. Get your mail server to recognize the
>mainaccount-company at mydomain.xxx syntax or B. associate all your aliases
>with the correct mail box.

I am not exactly sure how to make "A" work. I don't know if I have 
the flexibility, or the skill set, to do this.

If I understand "B" correctly, I should setup mail forwards for all 
my "aliases". That is what I am hoping to avoid. I literally have 
hundreds. Every time I sign up for a service or mailing list, I 
create a new "email address". Managing this would be quite difficult.

~Rick

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