Hiding imap account and still using it for outgoing email
I'm using dovecot 2.3.18 with a fairly recent version of postfix on my Debian-11 box.
I have a question, and I'm not sure whether it pertains to dovecot, postfix, or both. I'm asking first here, but I'm glad to go to a postfix forum if it turns out that my question doesn't pertain to dovecot.
On my server, account management in both dovecot and postfix is managed by the same mysql database, and postfix is configured to use dovecot's authentication mechanism.
I have an email address which I do not want to be seen as one which can be accessed for imap nor pop3. However, I want to receive email to that address, and I, myself, still do want to be able to use imap or pop3 in order to access email that is sent to that address.
I have something I want to try in order to accomplish this, but before I do, I want to make sure that no one can see any issues or "gotchas" with the following approach, or perhaps that there is an easier, more straightforward way to accomplish what I want to do:
Assume the email address in question is "myemail@domain.com", and assume that I own and manage the "domain.com" domain.
(1) Create another email address called "other@domain.com", and set it up with the same configuration as is currently set up for "myemail@domain.com"
(2) In all my email clients, set the outgoing mail address and reply-to address for "other@domain.com" to be "myemail@domain.com". This way, all outgoing email from "other@domain.com" will look like it is being sent from "myemail@domain.com".
(3) Change "myemail.com" (in the database used by dovecot and postfix) from being a bona-fide email address into becoming simply a forwarding email alias for "other@domain.com".
(4) In all my email clients, change the inbox that I previously used for "myemail@domain.com" to now be associated with "other@domain.com".
So ... if anyone sends email to "myemail@domain.com", it will automatically go to the "other@domain.com" inbox. And when I reply to those emails, the sender and reply-to addresses will still be "myemail@domain.com".
And now, dovecot will no longer see "myemail@domain.com" as a mailbox from which email can be retrieved. And I will still be able to retrieve that email via imap or pop3 from the "other@domain.com" account.
Do you folks think this will work? And again, is there perhaps a simpler way to accomplish this?
Thank you in advance for any thoughts and suggestions.
-- hippoman@gmail.com Take a hippopotamus to lunch today.
Well, I got impatient and decided to try this approach.
And it works!
-- hippoman@gmail.com Take a hippopotamus to lunch today.
On Mon, Jun 6, 2022 at 2:43 PM Hippo Man <hippoman@gmail.com> wrote:
I'm using dovecot 2.3.18 with a fairly recent version of postfix on my Debian-11 box.
I have a question, and I'm not sure whether it pertains to dovecot, postfix, or both. I'm asking first here, but I'm glad to go to a postfix forum if it turns out that my question doesn't pertain to dovecot.
On my server, account management in both dovecot and postfix is managed by the same mysql database, and postfix is configured to use dovecot's authentication mechanism.
I have an email address which I do not want to be seen as one which can be accessed for imap nor pop3. However, I want to receive email to that address, and I, myself, still do want to be able to use imap or pop3 in order to access email that is sent to that address.
I have something I want to try in order to accomplish this, but before I do, I want to make sure that no one can see any issues or "gotchas" with the following approach, or perhaps that there is an easier, more straightforward way to accomplish what I want to do:
Assume the email address in question is "myemail@domain.com", and assume that I own and manage the "domain.com" domain.
(1) Create another email address called "other@domain.com", and set it up with the same configuration as is currently set up for "myemail@domain.com"
(2) In all my email clients, set the outgoing mail address and reply-to address for "other@domain.com" to be "myemail@domain.com". This way, all outgoing email from "other@domain.com" will look like it is being sent from "myemail@domain.com".
(3) Change "myemail.com" (in the database used by dovecot and postfix) from being a bona-fide email address into becoming simply a forwarding email alias for "other@domain.com".
(4) In all my email clients, change the inbox that I previously used for "myemail@domain.com" to now be associated with "other@domain.com".
So ... if anyone sends email to "myemail@domain.com", it will automatically go to the "other@domain.com" inbox. And when I reply to those emails, the sender and reply-to addresses will still be "myemail@domain.com".
And now, dovecot will no longer see "myemail@domain.com" as a mailbox from which email can be retrieved. And I will still be able to retrieve that email via imap or pop3 from the "other@domain.com" account.
Do you folks think this will work? And again, is there perhaps a simpler way to accomplish this?
Thank you in advance for any thoughts and suggestions.
-- hippoman@gmail.com Take a hippopotamus to lunch today.
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Hippo Man