Create a catch-all email address

A catch-all email address will direct any email messages sent to an email account that does not exist on your domain name to a designated email account.  Note: Catch-alls are not supported in our Shared Hosting environment.  This applies only to Cloud Virtual Machines and Dedicated Servers running SmarterMail on Windows.

Catch-all email addresses are spam magnets!

If you activate a catch-all, every spam message received by any possible email address on your domain will be sent to a single mailbox. This will make the mailbox the catch-all is delivered to virtually unusable. It can also quickly exceed your mail storage limits if steps are not taken to limit the damage. Because of this Hosting.com strongly discourages the use of catch-alls, and on some servers it may be disabled.

What should I do instead?

The most common reasons we hear for wanting a catch-all are trapping misspelled addresses, or setting up temporary, "disposable" addresses for short term projects, using filters to sort the messages. In the case of temporary addresses, it is better to set up multiple individual aliases. They can be removed easily, with less long term spam impact than a catch-all.

As far as misspellings, this is most often cited as the reasoning for using catch-alls. However, most mail servers will create a delivery error if messages are sent to an invalid address. Using a catch-all to work around that lets the sender continue to send to an incorrect address. If there is a common mistake, like sending to listing@domain.com instead of listings@domain.com, use an individual alias.

If you still want to create a catch-all email address, please follow these steps:

1. Open a browser window and go to one of the following URLs:
   • http://mail.domainname.com
2. Login as root@domainname.com with the password supplied in your setup email.
3. If the alias does not yet exist, create the alias you wish to use as the catch all. Instructions for creating an email alias can be found here.
4. From the top menu bar, click Settings.

   

5. From the left side bar, expand Domain Settings.

   

6. Expand Accounts and click Aliases.
7. Click Set Catch-All.

    

8. Select the alias to be the catch-all.

   

9. Click Save.