Email Forwarding and How to Forward Email

There a two types of email forwarding that you will come across:

• Manual forwarding  -Done by an Email Client e.g. outlook express
• Automatic forwarding-Done by Email Server

The two forwarding types represent two quite separate uses.

Manual Email Forwarding

Manual forwarding is done on a per message basis and is done by the person receiving the email and is possible with all email clients both desktop and web based. In many cases email is forwarded to multiple recipients, and if this is this case you should consider whether or not you forward using the bcc (blind carbon copy) option so as to keep the addresses private.

This type of forwarding is in effect a resending of email as the recipient of the email sees the person who forwarded the email as the sender of the email and so a reply to sender send it to the person who forwarded the email and not the original sender.

See the following articles for detailed instructions:

• How to Forward an Email in Outlook Express
• How to Forward an Email in IncrediMail

Automatic Email Forwarding

 This type of forwarding is used to

• Consolidate all email addresses into a single mailbox
• send a copy of an email to someone else or another mailbox.
• etc

For example if you have you primary account at work and go out of the office for a few days you can arrange to forward a copy of your email to an external POP3 or Webmail account like Yahoo so that you can read it while you are away.

Because you have forwarded a copy of the email the original is still in your work mailbox when you return.

It is also used when transferring email accounts from one provider to another. You arrange for email sent to the old account to be automatically forwarded to the new account.

 After you are satisfied that you are no longer receiving email at the old account you can then cancel it.

The technique is the same as used with normal mail when moving house. You arrange with the post office to send all mail addresses to your old address to your new one.

Email forwarding is usually how universities and colleges provide so called lifetime email address. They simply provide access to email forwarding on the old email address.

Although it is the way of providing lifetime email addresses it is not ideal and email forwarding should only be considered a temporary solution.

With this type of forwarding the recipient sees the original sender as the sender. Replying to sender will send a message to the original sender.

Setting up Email Forwarding on The Email Server

When setting up email forwarding on the email server you will need to logon to your email server (usually using your email account credentials) .

If you manage your own email account which is the case if you have an email account with Yahoo, Google or hotmail then it is part of your email options.

If your email account is part of a web hosting package then it is managed through the hosting control panel.

If the mailbox is on a corporate server (i.e. Exchange) then this is normally done for you by the administrator.

The forwarding options you have depend on your email provider. Generally they are

• Forward and keep a copy.
• Forward and don't keep a copy.
• Forward on conditions (i.e. selective forwarding).

For Yahoo you logon to you email accounts and select options and it is part of the POP3 and email forwarding options ( paid accounts only) see screen shot below and only allows complete forward:

Google is more flexible and allows all three see screen shot below:

Automatic Forwarding From an Email Client

Email forwarded can be done in outlook express/ IncrediMail by manually forwarding the message or by using a message rule to automatically forward the message.

 The thing to remember when using the client is that you need to connect the client to the the email server and retrieve the initial message before you can forward it; either manually or automatically using message rules.

This type of forwarding is in effect a resending of email as the recipient of the email sees the person who forwarded the email as the sender of the email and so a reply to sender send it to the person who forwarded the email and not the original sender.

Problems with Email Forwarding

The main problems are the addresses. Depending on how the forwarding is done the sender address can be the original sender or the forwarder. However this doesn't usually cause problems as the original sender is included in the email see below:

This type of forwarding (client or manual) is in reality a resend operation.

If used to forward email to another mailbox to consolidate email in one location, when you reply to the email the recipient will see the forwarded mailbox as the sender of the email and may not recognise it, or find it suspicious as it wasn't the email address he had originally sent to.

Therefore the main problems come not when forwarding but when replying to those emails.

Email Forwarding Services

You will find many companies offering forwarding services. They usually work by connecting to you mailbox reading the email and then sending it (forwarding it) onto a email address of your choice.

Because of this they can forward email from multiple email addresses/mailboxes to a single email address/mailbox.

Because they are connecting to you email mailboxes they will need to be configured with the account details (address, account name and password etc). You can also usually choose a sampling period which is basically how often they read your mailboxes to check for new emails.

Generally what they do can be done by any email client. However they are very useful if you will be forwarding to a non traditional email device like an iphone/mobile phone.

Out of office replies  Common in large organizations but should you use them and can you use them with Outlook Express/Incredimail?

Managing Multiple Email Accounts/Mailboxes-Many people have multiple email accounts here we look at Managing Multiple Email Accounts/Mailboxes