Biblioteca de cunoștințe

Beyond plain email accounts, cPanel offers three power-user tools that let you handle inbound mail intelligently: forwarders (send copies elsewhere), autoresponders (out-of-office replies), and filters (server-side rules). This article covers each on your ipxcore cPanel account.

Forwarders: send mail to other addresses

A forwarder takes mail addressed to one address and delivers it to one or more others. Common uses:

• Forward all mail for info@yourdomain.com to your personal Gmail.
• Forward mail for a former employee to their replacement.
• Send mail to a role address (support@) to multiple team members.

Single forwarder

1. cPanel → Forwarders (under "Email").
2. Click Add Forwarder.
3. Enter the source address (just the part before the @).
4. Pick the destination (another email address) or pipe to a program / discard.
5. Save.

Domain-level forwarders

If you want every address on a domain forwarded to a single address (*@yourdomain.com → you@gmail.com):

1. Forwarders → Add Domain Forwarder.
2. Pick the source domain.
3. Enter the destination domain (so anything@yourdomain.com → anything@destination.com).

Forwarding to multiple addresses

cPanel doesn't expose a single "forward to multiple" UI. Instead, create one forwarder per destination — all forwarders for the same source address are honored. Or use a Filter (see below) with multiple "Deliver to address" actions.

Autoresponders: out-of-office replies

Autoresponders automatically send a reply to anyone who emails a specific address. Standard "I'm on vacation until Aug 15" use case.

1. cPanel → Autoresponders.
2. Click Add Autoresponder.
3. Configure:
   • Email: the address that triggers the reply
   • From / Subject / Body: the reply content
   • Interval: how often to reply to the same sender (default 24 hours — sane; lower values can flood mailing lists)
   • Start / Stop: activation window
4. Save.

Important: don't reply to mailing lists

Many mailing lists detect autoresponders and unsubscribe you. The 24-hour interval helps but isn't bulletproof. If you're on important mailing lists, suspend the autoresponder while away — or use a Filter rule that excludes X-List-* headers.

Filters: server-side rules

Filters are the most powerful of the three. They examine each inbound message and apply rules — deliver to a folder, forward, discard, mark as spam, etc.

Account-level filters (one address)

1. cPanel → Email Filters.
2. Click Manage Filters next to an account.
3. Click Create a New Filter.
4. Name the filter, then build the rule:
   • Match condition: From / To / Subject / Body / Headers / etc.
   • Operator: contains / equals / matches regex / etc.
   • Value: what to match against
   • Actions: Discard, Deliver to folder, Forward, Pipe to program, Save to file, Stop processing rules
5. Save.

Domain-level filters

Global Email Filters apply before account-level filters and affect every address on the domain. Useful for catching spam or routing patterns globally.

Common filter recipes

• Move newsletters to a folder: Match "List-Unsubscribe" header contains anything → Deliver to folder "Newsletters".
• Block by sender: Match From contains @spammer.com → Discard.
• Mark internal mail: Match From ends with @yourcompany.com → Deliver to folder "Internal".
• Forward + keep a copy: Forward to archive@yourdomain.com, then Deliver Normally (don't add a Stop Processing action so the message also lands in inbox).

Combining the three

Filters run before forwarders, which run before autoresponders. So if you Forward + Autoresponder + have a Filter that Discards mail from noreply@ addresses, the discard fires first and the autoresponder doesn't reply to a noreply (good).

Catch-all (the @ ghost)

Any mail to a non-existent address on your domain (typotypo@yourdomain.com) is handled by your Default Address setting:

1. cPanel → Default Address.
2. Pick:
   • Discard (recommended for most domains)
   • Forward to email address (catch-all delivery, common for small businesses)
   • Pipe to a program (advanced)
   • Discard with error to sender (failed delivery bounce; tells the sender they typoed)
3. Save.

Catch-all forwarding produces a lot of spam — spammers guess random addresses. Most domains should set this to Discard.

Common pitfalls

• Forwarders that loop. A forwards to B forwards to A. Mail bounces forever. Trace the chain.
• Forwarder breaks SPF. When you forward, the receiving server sees the message coming from your server, not the original sender. SPF can fail. Set up SRS or SRS-style rewriting on heavy forwarders.
• Filter doesn't fire. Order matters — if an earlier rule includes "Stop Processing," later rules don't run. Re-order via the up/down arrows.
• Autoresponder spam. Spammers spoof the From address; your autoresponder replies to the spoof, generating bounces. Use the 24-hour interval and exclude common automated From addresses (noreply@, mailer-daemon@) via filters.