Sonic Hosted Email - Inbound Distribution Lists ?

General discussions and other topics.
5 posts Page 1 of 1
by sfjames » Fri Mar 25, 2022 9:11 am
After three decades of running my own personal email server in my hall closet, I am going to move my two Domain email MX to a hosted solution. Sonic is my ISP and handles my DNS.

The one feature I really need is inbound Distribution lists. This is the feature that allows one to create and email address that does not connect to any mailbox. It is a routed address. Typically, there is a place to manage were this inbound email goes. Usually a list of actual email boxes. Sometime even back out via SMTP to other internet addresses.

In our case we use about 15 inbound email addresses that go to either myself or my wife or both. About 10 if those stay static year in and year out with about 5 of them being created and deleted to use with websites that need an email but we do not want to give them one that cannot be tossed.

Some systems call Distribution Lists something like Groups or Identities. Many system have internal or outbound Distribution Lists but I am finding the inbound Distribution Lists are a feature not implemented by many. My Microsoft Exchange Server Enterprise as well as Mail Enable both have inbound DL's.

I have asked support at Sonic if they have this feature and all I get is half-baked responses. When I asked for clarification I got zero response. The folks at the front line of support these days at sonic I doubt have no idea what a MTA is or how email actually works.

I a hoping that someone at Sonic that actually knows how email works can give me a solid answer. I would like to just centralize everything at Sonic, but I can also move my MX to a number of other places.

Thank you, James
by joemuller » Fri Mar 25, 2022 10:12 am
Hi James,

If you have your domain set up with Sonic as the MX, you can configured the Domain Email Alias(es) to point at multiple recipients - just put a comma-separated list of recipients in the 'points to' field instead of a single address. I'm assuming that you don't need the full functionality of a Mailing List, so feel free to experiment with multiple recipients to see if it meets your requirements.

-- Joe M
System Operations
Sonic.
I'm a proud employee of Sonic.net! :-)
by sfjames » Fri Mar 25, 2022 3:09 pm
Hi Joe,

Right now my email is run on my own servers in my closet here in San Francisco. Sonic handles the DNS. The MX points to the server in my hall closet. Staying on top of the spam filtering is getting on my nerves. Also, after 30 years, I think it is time to let someone else handle it for me, I have earned my stripes.

I just use inbound mail enabled addresses for things like ebay and craigslist and a few other things. I also make and kill about 4 or 5 inbound email addresses every year when I need to give a website and email address, but I suspect that I will want to delete it at some point. All of these have no mailbox associated with them. Any email to them route out of the MTA to both my wife and my actual email box and some to both of them.

Does the functionality you mention work if I have you supporting my own domains names as well?

MS Exchange Enterprise Server did this well. But then my copies timed out support wise after 15 years and they wanted $10K for me to replace it for my wife and I. So much for loyalty to an old customer who I ran a Exchange email system with 15 Exchange servers around the world. So, I have run Mail Enable for the last few years.

Please advise & thanks, James
by joemuller » Fri Mar 25, 2022 4:48 pm
Hi James,

Sonic handles domain emails (yourchoiceofname@example.com) as aliases inside our mail system (sendmail), so as long as you have DNS or MX Handling service for your domain and the MX records are pointed at Sonic, addresses can be set up to deliver incoming mail to 1 or more @sonic.net addresses (or other providers*). You can also send with those aliases, effectively giving you outbound email via our server (mail.sonic.net). Any mail delivered to an @sonic.net destination, whether directly or via an alias, will be filtered for spam via the default Spamassassin setup (can be adjusted via Member Tools to be more/less strict on total score or rules).

If you have a specific use case or further questions, please feel free to send me a private message.

-- Joe M
System Operations
Sonic.

* If you set up the domain email address to a gmail.com address or other provider, they may see the forwarding process as a possible spoofing or spam attempt, especially if you don't add an SPF record for your domain that includes our list of mail servers at mail.sonic.net. We can only guarantee delivery to mailboxes hosted on our servers - forwarded mail is sent best-effort.
I'm a proud employee of Sonic.net! :-)
by virtualmike » Sat Mar 26, 2022 4:11 pm
sfjames wrote:I just use inbound mail enabled addresses for things like ebay and craigslist and a few other things. I also make and kill about 4 or 5 inbound email addresses every year when I need to give a website and email address, but I suspect that I will want to delete it at some point. All of these have no mailbox associated with them. Any email to them route out of the MTA to both my wife and my actual email box and some to both of them.

Does the functionality you mention work if I have you supporting my own domains names as well?
Hi, James ... I'm doing pretty much what you're asking.

First, understand that domain email addresses (e.g., any email address handled by Sonic not ending with @sonic.net) are not directly associated with mailboxes by default. If you create a new mailbox, it will have an @sonic.net email address. You don't need to use that address externally, you just have to configure your email client to access that mailbox. Almost all email clients allow a distinction between the email address(es) known to the rest of the world and the credentials used for logging into the mailbox. My mailboxes are of the pattern <username><domain name>@sonic.net. We do not give out those email addresses to anyone. (FYI, the main @sonic.net mailbox on my account is only used by Sonic, and it's not the one I'm using in this forum.)

In Member Tools, you'll create an alias for every email address that you wish to share with anyone, and point that alias to one or more mailboxes. For example, the alias/email address mike@<mydomain> directs incoming email to the mike<mydomain>@sonic.net mailbox. My email program (Thunderbird) is configured that my email address is mike@<mydomain>, but it logs into the Sonic mail server with mike<mydomain>@sonic.net (for both IMAP and SMTP). I also have about another dozen email addresses (aliases) all pointing to the same mailbox. Thunderbird allows me to create "identities" for a mailbox with the additional addresses, and it's even smart enough that when I reply, it figures out the correct "from" address for the reply.

Some email addresses are shared between my spouse and me. For those, each alias points to:

Code: Select all

mike<mydomain>@sonic.net,spouse<mydomain>@sonic.net
As I mentioned, aliases can be edited easily through Member Tools. If one of my addresses starts getting spammed, I either direct it to Sonic's black hole (devnull@sonic.net) or direct it to a mailbox I created that autoresponds with "The email address is no longer valid" and a link to a Google Form that a human can complete to try to contact me.

I go one step further, however. I have a subdomain (e.<mydomain>) that has a wildcard entry in the alias table. Any aliases I have created will direct the mail as I've configured. Mail set to other email addresses on the subdomain will go to the mailbox specified by the wildcard, which allows me to make up email addresses on the fly. That way, when I need an email address for whatever, I can create it then. This saves time when filling out a web form. More importantly, when I'm away from home and someone asks for an email address, I can provide one.

If one of those addresses starts getting spammed, I can take one of the actions I noted above. Plus, there's one additional benefit: by giving a different email address to everyone who asks or requires one (e.g., the myriad logins I use in daily life, such as the power company, the cable company, the health insurance company, ad nauseum) if I start receiving spam on one of those addresses, I know immediately which company shared the address (or had an insecure system and allowed someone to steal it). As well, if I get an email that looks authentic and says that my bank account is overdrawn, and it wasn't sent to the email address I gave to the bank, then I don't have to research any further to validate the claim--I already know it's a phish. As well, most security experts recommend a different login for each site (not just a different password), so this addresses that advice.

It seems a bit overwhelming at first, but once you start using it, you'll discover that it's pretty low maintenance and very handy. I don't even bother to remember all the email addresses in use. I can always look in Member Tools to review. As far as site logins, I use a password manager that reminds me of the specific email address for that site.

One last point: I use two mailboxes for may daily life. My primary box is for personal correspondence and items I want to see quickly, and it's the one that I check from my phone. All of the e.<mydomain> mail goes to a separate mailbox, that I only check from my home computer.

Hopefully this is helpful and you can adapt it to your specific situation. ...cheers!

PS. Be sure to set up an SPF record on DNS for your domains so that outbound email isn't rejected.
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