The cPanel Default Address and why catch-all mailboxes are a bad idea
By default your cPanel account will reject email sent to an address that you have not already setup with a mailbox or forwarder. We strongly recommend you leave these default settings alone. Mail addressed to a non existent mailbox or forwarder is called unrouteable.
While it is possible to send all such email to a catch-all address we strongly recommend against this practice as catch-all addresses are prime targets for spammers. Once your domain becomes known, spammers will target random usernames@yourdomain - it will be harder for us to filter spam, as your account will no longer reject email for unknown recipients.
If using a catch-all email address is unavoidable for you, and you wish to read such email using a third party system such as Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo etc then we recommend you configure a LOCAL mailbox to receive the messages, and then collect mail from that mailbox using the third party's POP3 collection tools. This is described in Step 3 below.
Follow the guide How to create a mailbox in cPanel to create your catch-all mailbox. A catchall mailbox is no different from any other mailbox.
Click the Default Address icon in the EMAIL section of cPanel.
Under the Default Address Maintenance heading, select your domain from the drop-down list (1) and the select the Forward to email address radio button (2). Enter the address of your catch-all mailbox in the Forward to email address box (3). Click the Change (4) button to save your changes.
In our example, any email that the server receives which is not addressed to a known mailbox or forwarder within the krystaldemo.co.uk domain will be redirected into catchall@krystaldemo.co.uk mailbox.
If you wish to read your catch-all email using a third part system such as Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo etc, then you must use the tools made available to you on their system.
We strongly recommend you do not forward all mail to the system account unless you have a very good reason. Again, this option will make your account a prime target for spammers.
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While it is possible to send all such email to a catch-all address we strongly recommend against this practice as catch-all addresses are prime targets for spammers. Once your domain becomes known, spammers will target random usernames@yourdomain - it will be harder for us to filter spam, as your account will no longer reject email for unknown recipients.
If using a catch-all email address is unavoidable for you, and you wish to read such email using a third party system such as Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo etc then we recommend you configure a LOCAL mailbox to receive the messages, and then collect mail from that mailbox using the third party's POP3 collection tools. This is described in Step 3 below.
Follow the guide How to create a mailbox in cPanel to create your catch-all mailbox. A catchall mailbox is no different from any other mailbox.
Click the Default Address icon in the EMAIL section of cPanel.
Under the Default Address Maintenance heading, select your domain from the drop-down list (1) and the select the Forward to email address radio button (2). Enter the address of your catch-all mailbox in the Forward to email address box (3). Click the Change (4) button to save your changes.
In our example, any email that the server receives which is not addressed to a known mailbox or forwarder within the krystaldemo.co.uk domain will be redirected into catchall@krystaldemo.co.uk mailbox.
If you wish to read your catch-all email using a third part system such as Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo etc, then you must use the tools made available to you on their system.
A special note about the system account
We strongly recommend you do not forward all mail to the system account unless you have a very good reason. Again, this option will make your account a prime target for spammers.
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Updated on: 24/01/2024
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