Email alias

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

An email alias is simply a forwarding email address. The term alias expansion is sometimes used to indicate a specific mode of email forwarding, thereby implying a more generic meaning of the term email alias as an address that is forwarded in a simplistic fashion.[1]

Usage

Email

email messages addressed to an email alias on to another, the specified email address. An email alias may be used to create a simple replacement for a long or difficult-to-remember email address. It can also be used to create a generic email address such as webmaster@example.com
and [email protected].

On

UNIX
-like systems, email aliases may be placed into the file /etc/aliases and have the form:

local-alias-name: adifferentlocaluser, anotherlocaluser, [email protected]

Control issue

Messages forwarded through an email alias retain the original

mailbox
.

Recipients who cannot trace what address the sender used are unable to ask the sender to stop sending, because the sender most likely will not be able to associate their current email address with the one used for sending. Even if users are able to learn the exact address used for sending, their mail client may not provide a convenient way to submit a reply using the latter as the sender address of the response. In other words, aliasing is not reversible. This is particularly relevant in

electronic mailing list
software will send individual messages to each recipient with a different SMTP FROM address.

Abuse issue

The recipient's SMTP server sees only the forwarding system's

ISP
as spam, the ISP credits that spam to the forwarding system. ISPs with low abuse thresholds may begin blocking email from the forwarding system.

See also

Notes

  1. mailing lists, noting that the replacement of the address to whom bounce messages
    are returned makes a key difference. An email alias is different from a contact group, or distribution list. According to Microsoft, a contact group is "a grouping of e-mail addresses collected under one name. A message sent to a contact group goes to all recipients listed in the group."
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