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Configuring user mail aliases
About mail aliases
Mail aliases are addresses that the FirstClass server creates based on how you have configured your site.
By default, the FirstClass server does not automatically create mail aliases for delivering inbound mail to your users. If you want to provide your users with mail aliases, you must enable the appropriate options on the Aliases tab on the Advanced Directory form or enter aliases manually on each user's User Information Form.
Understanding how aliases work
FirstClass generates aliases in one of three ways, by:
• configuring automatic aliases using the options in the Automatic aliases section
• entering manual aliases on the User Information Form
• generating aliases from the user's first name, middle initial, and last name entries on the User Information Form.
Internet Services uses this option if no manual aliases are entered and you've selected "Do not create automatic aliases" in the Automatic aliases section.
Although both the Automatic aliases settings and the Inbound mail addressing settings are on the same form, they do perform different functions.
The Automatic aliases section tells the server what (if any) aliases to generate. Once the server creates the requested aliases, it passes them to Internet Services exactly the same way as if they had been manually entered in the User Information Form. The options in the Automatic aliases section are a convenience to save you from having to manually enter user aliases.
The Inbound mail addressing section controls how Internet Services and the server handle messages that arrive with an alias that Internet Services can't identify. "Allow Short Forms" and "Exact Match Only" force Internet Services to pass any message with an unknown recipient address to the server to process. With the first option, the server checks to see if there are any short forms of a user's name in the FirstClass Directory and to reject unknown addresses. In the second option, the server checks for an exact match as entered on a User Information Form and to reject unknown addresses. Both options put more load on the server, as it has to process each message and they also open up your system to more potential junk mail.
"Aliases Only" tells Internet Services to look up an alias in the Internet Services table and make a decision based on those entries instead of passing the message to the server for processing. If an alias is not found, Internet Services sends it right back to the sender without using any further system resources. If an alias is found, Internet Services sends the message directly to the user's Mailbox.
For most standard FirstClass sites, we recommend choosing "Aliases Only". This is the safest and most easily controlled option, as only messages addressed to users with specifically configured aliases, or those that you've entered manually, will pass to the user. In some rare cases, mostly for very large sites, you may need to choose the "Exact Match Only" option. This allows you to have aliases without putting too great a load on Internet Services. The most dangerous choice is "Allow Short Forms", since it provides more combinations of names to pass through to the server and opens your users up to a greater chance of receiving junk mail. This setting is mainly for backwards compatibility and not recommended for most sites.
These are some possible scenarios:
Scenario 1
If you select any option in the Automatic aliases section and "Aliases Only" in the Inbound mail addressing section, with no aliases manually entered on the User
Information Form, your users would only receive mail addressed to the specified alias choice. For example, if we selected "Use first initial and last name as aliases" on Husky Planes, Roy Allen's aliases would be rallen@huskyplanes.com.
Choosing "Aliases Only" puts no extra load on the server and choosing any option (except for the first option) won't attract extra spam, as there is only one possible alias for a user.
Scenario 2
If you select any option in the Automatic aliases section and "Aliases Only" in the Inbound mail addressing section, but also manually enter aliases on the User
Information Form, your users would only receive mail to their unique aliases you've manually entered. For example, if we selected "Use first name and last initial as aliases" on Husky Planes but also entered "royboy" in the "Mail aliases" field on his User Information Form, Roy Allen would only get mail addressed to royboy@huskyplanes.com. Manual aliases always override any other options.
Choosing "Aliases Only" puts no extra load on the server and choosing any option (except for the first option) won't attract extra spam, as there is only one possible alias for a user. However, you can provide unique aliases to those users on your system who need them.
Scenario 3
If you select both "Do not create automatic aliases" in the Automatic aliases section and "Exact Match Only" in the Inbound mail addressing section, your users would only receive mail addressed to firstname_lastname@yoursite.com or firstname_initial_lastname, as they appear on the User Information Form. For example, if we had this configuration on Husky Planes, Roy Allen's aliases would be
Choosing "Exact Match Only" puts extra load on the server, as Internet Services has to pass all messages with unknown addresses to the server to process, which may include junk mail. Unless there is a good reason to use this configuration, we recommend it less than the first two scenarios.
Scenario 4
If you want to completely stop your users from receiving mail altogether, you would have this configuration:
 NoteThis is an extreme case and rarely used on most sites.
• select "Do not create automatic aliases"
• choose "Aliases Only" from the Inbound mail addressing options
• clear "Mail aliases" on the User Information Form.
For more information
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