How to Set Up Email Forwarders and Autoresponders
Email forwarders are a convenient way to manage multiple email addresses under your domain without creating separate mailboxes. For instance, if you want emails sent to sales@yourdomain.com to reach both your inbox and a team member’s, setting up a forwarder makes it effortless.
What Is an Email Forwarder?
An email forwarder allows you to direct emails from one address (like sales@yourdomain.com) to another mailbox without creating a separate email account. This is especially helpful when:
- You want multiple team members to receive emails sent to a shared address.
- You don’t need a dedicated inbox for every alias or department.
- You’re centralizing communication to one or two mailboxes.
Example: If your main email is john@yourdomain.com, but you also want to receive messages sent to info@yourdomain.com, a forwarder routes emails from info@ directly to your main inbox.
Attention Gmail users!
If you need to access your domain email from Gmail, follow our Gmail integration guide for a reliable setup.
Step 1: Log in to cPanel and Open the Forwarders Section
- Sign in to your cPanel account.
- Scroll down to the Email section.
Click on Forwarders.
Step 2: Choose Your Domain and Add a Forwarder
- If you manage multiple domains, select the desired domain from the dropdown menu.
- Click the Add Forwarder button.
Step 3: Enter Forwarder Details
- In the Address to Forward field, enter the email prefix (e.g., info).
- Confirm the domain selected is correct.
- In the Destination section, choose Forward to Email Address and enter the target email address.
Click Add Forwarder to save.
Reminder: Forwarding to external services like Gmail or Outlook is not recommended due to deliverability issues.
Advanced Forwarding Options (Optional)
Click Advanced Options for additional configurations:
- Discard with Error Message:
Reject incoming mail and return a custom error message to the sender. This is useful for discontinued accounts (e.g., when an employee leaves the company). - Forward to a System Account:
Deliver messages to the default cPanel system account. This centralizes mail in one inbox. - Pipe to a Program:
Useful for applications like WHMCS that convert incoming email into actions—such as opening a support ticket. This method processes the email through a script. - Discard (No Message):
Deletes the message silently without notifying the sender. This is not recommended, as senders won't know their email wasn’t received.
Step 4: Review Your Forwarders
After creating a forwarder, it will appear in the list at the bottom of the Forwarders page. From here, you can edit or remove existing entries as needed.
Domain Forwarding (Forward All Emails from One Domain to Another)
You can also set up a domain-level forwarder to forward all email from one domain to another.
This is useful when:
- You’ve registered a new domain and want all mail sent to the old domain to be delivered to the new one.
- You want to consolidate multiple domains into a single inbox.
Note: Domain forwarding is recommended only for local delivery. Forwarding to external domains (like Gmail) may result in missed emails due to filtering or silent rejections.
Final Tip from Vivint Host
Email forwarders are powerful but should be used carefully. For mission-critical emails, always:
- Use local mailboxes (not Gmail/Yahoo).
- Test forwarding to ensure delivery.
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