Forwarding Your E-Mail


Because indiscriminate forwarding implicates our servers in the spread of spam and virus/worm mail, we require spam blocking and virus protection whenever mail from Panix is forwarded to another site.

If you are going away from Panix for a while, or for some other reason would like your email to be automatically sent on to some other account (rather than being deposited in your mailbox on Panix) although you are keeping your Panix account, you can have Panix forward your mail automatically.

First, a few words on when not to use forwarding. You should not forward mail to another site where you have a system forwarding mail back to Panix. This can cause your e-mail to loop around repeatedly, not being delivered in the meanwhile, and then to die because of too many hops.

That said, in most situations forwarding can be very helpful. Here's how to do it.

From webmail

  1. Log into webmail. (Don't forget to use your full email address with your usual password.)
  2. Select the Options link at the top of the page.
  3. Select Mail Forwarding Options
  4. Enter the address to which you want to forward your mail.
    For instance, if I want all my Panix mail to go to myaccount@example.com I would enter myaccount@example.com into the text box.
  5. If you also want to keep a copy on Panix, click the "Save local copy" box.
  6. Click submit

From the command line

The forward command allows you to see, modify, and delete your forwarding instructions.

It is often a good idea to save a local copy in your Panix account. You can do this by adding METOO on a separate line.

Here's what that might look like: 

myaccount@example.com
METOO
This means that you will have to clear out your mailbox on Panix occasionally, but it's probably worth it for the extra security.

WARNING!!

This feature is 100% safe when used correctly. However, if you use it improperly, you WILL lose mail, and we will NOT be held responsible. Using it improperly consists, simply, of putting an incorrect address into the forwarding file. Therefore, make SURE that the address is right before you use it. Also, after you've created the .forward file, send mail to yourself and see if it gets forwarded to the correct destination. If it doesn't, REMOVE THE FILE RIGHT AWAY and figure out what you did wrong. Otherwise your mail will be forwarded out to oblivion.

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