What you'll achieve
- Forwarding: messages arriving at one address (for example
office@firmata.ro) are automatically sent to another address too — for example, to a colleague. - Auto-reply: whoever writes to you immediately receives a message you have set. Useful when you're on vacation or outside working hours.
Both are included with every email on your domain address hosted with us.
Before you start
- You set them up in Enhance (https://server.nbt-host.com), for any address on the domain. They can't be set up from Webmail: if you only use the email address, ask whoever has access to the hosting account.
- The address must already exist (see How to create an email account in Enhance).
- We use the English names from the Enhance interface, exactly as they appear on screen. If the panel opens in another language, switch it to English from your account menu: “My account” » “Language”.
The steps
A. Forwarding, keeping the messages in the mailbox
- In Enhance, click “Emails” in the left menu.
- Next to the address, open “Manage”.
- In the page menu, choose “Forwarders”.
- Under “Forwarding address”, enter the address where you want the messages to go and click “Add”. For several addresses, add them one by one.
- Send a test message from another address and check that it arrived in both places.
Messages also stay in your mailbox, and a copy goes to the addresses in the list. To stop a forwarder, delete it from the list. It can't be edited: if you want a different destination, delete it and add the new one.
Be careful when forwarding to Gmail, Yahoo or Outlook.com. Our server resends the message and rewrites the sender's technical address so it passes the SPF check. Even so, the recipient's provider may put some forwarded messages in spam, and the spam you receive gets forwarded too. If you just want to read your business email in Gmail, it's safer to add the address in the Gmail app (see Email on Android, in the Gmail app) than to forward it.
B. Forwarding-only address
For an address that doesn't need a mailbox — for example facturi@firmata.ro, read by your accountant at their own address:
- In “Emails”, click “Add account”.
- Under “Email address”, enter the part before the @ sign and choose the domain.
- Under “Account type”, choose “Forwarder-only”.
- Under “Forward emails to”, enter the destination address and click “Add”. You can add several.
- Click “Add” at the bottom to create the address.
Such an address doesn't keep messages and can't send. It takes up no space and doesn't count toward the number of mailboxes in your plan.
You can convert an existing mailbox from its page, with “Convert to forwarder-only”. Careful: all the messages stored in it are deleted. The other way around, “Convert to mailbox” turns the address into a regular mailbox.
C. Messages sent to addresses that don't exist
If you want messages sent to any mistyped address on the domain (for example ofice@firmata.ro) to reach you, turn on “Catch-all” on your address: “Manage” » “Catch-all”. Careful: the catch-all also collects a lot of spam sent to made-up addresses.
D. Auto-reply
- In “Emails”, open “Manage” next to the address.
- In the page menu, choose “Out of office” and click “Add”.
- Under “Start and end date”, pick the start day and the day you're back from the calendar — that way it stops on its own. If you don't know when you'll be back, check “Send until I turn it off”: only “Start date” remains, and the reply keeps going until you turn it off.
- Under “Subject”, enter the reply's subject, for example
Out of office until 25 August. - Under “Message”, enter the message.
- Leave “Enabled” checked.
- Click “Add”.
The reply appears under “Out of office”, with the dates, subject and message. To change it: “Edit” » make your changes » “Save”. To turn it off: “Edit” » uncheck “Enabled” » “Save” — or delete it with “Delete”. An address has a single auto-reply.
An example message you can adapt:
Hello,
Thank you for your message. I am on vacation until 25 August and will not be reading email during this time. For urgent matters, please write to [colleague's address] or call [phone].
Have a nice day, Jane Smith
If something doesn't work
- Forwarded messages don't reach Gmail or end up in spam. First check the Spam folder in Gmail. If they're still missing, it's the effect described above. The reliable option is to add the address in the Gmail app, via IMAP.
- You can't add a forwarder. The destination address can't be the forwarding address itself and can't be added twice. Check that it's written in full and correctly.
- The mailbox fills up even though messages are forwarded. The mailbox keeps a copy of each one. Delete old messages from time to time, increase the mailbox size (see How to create an email account in Enhance) or, if you don't need the copies, turn it into a forwarding-only address (step B).
- You don't get the auto-reply when you test it. Check that “Enabled” is checked and that the start day has begun. Test from an address at another provider, for example Gmail, not from the same address. Auto-replies are not sent to newsletters, mailing lists or other auto-replies.
- Messages go around in circles or bounce back with an error. You have two forwarders sending to each other (A to B and B to A). Delete one of them.