Question regarding email addresses containing a "+" sign

akust0m

• November 30, 2016 06:51

Hello, We have a client where they have their default address set to deliver all unrouted mail to a forwarder which then is supposed to go to a real mailbox on the server. So it goes *default account* > *forwarder* > *mailbox*. The client has mentioned that in the past, he has had no problems with people sending emails to his domain with a + sign in it. For example: test+email@example.com[/EMAIL] However, recently he has noticed that none of these emails are being received. Running an exim test returns the following: # exim -bt test+email@example.com[/EMAIL] mail to test+email@example.com[/EMAIL] is discarded There seems to be no global or individual mail filters on his cPanel account. Also, if I run the same test as above but without a "+" sign then it shows a successful delivery to the desired mailbox. We set up an identical setup on a different cPanel server and it delivers perfectly fine through to the desired mailbox as well. Are there any settings in Exim that would prevent the use of a "+" symbol? Thanks!

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  akust0m

  • December 01, 2016 05:02

  Ok so we were able to narrow down where the problem is: In this case, the client was receiving email to "external+test@example.com". This email account doesn't exist, it is caught in the default mail account catch-all, which then forwards through to "external@example.com" (which is an email forwarder). The email is discarded, however sending to "external1+test@example.com" works. So it seems that there is a problem when the part before the "+" sign on the email address that is being sent to matches the part before the @ symbol on the email forwarder.

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  cPanelMichael

  • December 07, 2016 14:25

  Hello, A feature to support

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  akust0m

  • December 08, 2016 03:30

  Hi @cPanelMichael, The client was wanting to receive email to "external+test@example.com". I don't think it was for the purpose of sub-addressing though; he just wanted a + sign in his email. This email account doesn't exist, instead it is caught in the default mail account catch-all, which then forwards through to "external@example.com". In the above case, mail is discarded, perhaps because the folder "test" doesn't exist?? However sending to "external1+test@example.com" works.

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  cPanelMichael

  • December 08, 2016 12:24

  Hello, Do either "external@example.com" or "external1@example.com" exist as individual email accounts under the account (not just the username of the cPanel account)? Thank you.

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