Mail Quarantine: held-back forwardings

If you forward emails, for example with a forwarding or a mail group to an address at Gmail, GMX or Hotmail, our spam filter checks every mail first. Anything it recognises as spam is not forwarded but held back in the Mail Quarantine. There you can see these mails, deliver them anyway if needed and decide which senders should always get through. The Mail Quarantine is available on all Linux web hosting servers.

Why spam is not forwarded

When a server forwards spam, it looks to the recipient as if the spam came from that server. Microsoft (Hotmail, Outlook.com, Live), GMX and other providers then block such servers completely. After that, your normal, clean mails no longer arrive there either. The quarantine therefore protects your own mails.

What goes into the quarantine and what does not

• Yes: mails that are to be sent on to another address via a forwarding or mail group and that the spam filter marked as spam.
• No: mails that end up in your mailbox. The mailbox itself still receives the mail, depending on your settings in the spam folder or with a marked subject.
• No: mails you send yourself, for example with Outlook, Thunderbird or webmail.

How to open the Mail Quarantine

1. Open the hosting control panel (Plesk). You find the access in the customer portal under My Services with the respective hosting.
2. Under Websites & Domains, expand your domain and choose the Mail tab.
3. Click Mail Quarantine. You also find the entry on the start page of the control panel.

Viewing and delivering mails

The list shows all held mails with date, subject, sender, spam score and the address they should have been forwarded to. On the right you see the day on which the mail will be deleted automatically. At the top you choose the domain and the status (in quarantine, delivered, deleted) and can search by sender, subject or recipient.

Click a subject to view the mail. You see the text and the headers; for security reasons links and images are not loaded. Then you have these options:

• Deliver: forwards the mail to the forwarding address now.
• Always allow sender: adds the sender address to the whitelist and immediately delivers all mails of this sender from the quarantine.
• Allow whole domain: the same, but for all senders of this domain, for example all addresses of your accountant.
• Download (.eml): saves the original mail, which you can open with any mail program.
• Delete: removes the mail permanently.

In the list you can tick several mails and deliver or delete them together.

Caution: spam often uses forged senders and dangerous links or attachments, such as alleged parcel deliveries, bank messages or prize draws. Only deliver a mail if you know the sender and expect the mail.

Allowing senders permanently (whitelist)

The Whitelist tab shows all allowed senders per domain. Mails from these senders are always forwarded, even if the spam filter triggers. You can add a single address (for example accounting@supplier.com) or a whole domain (for example supplier.com) and remove entries again.

How long mails are kept

The retention period depends on your hosting plan. After that, the mails are deleted automatically.

• 7 days: FireNano, FireMini, FireSmall and other plans
• 14 days: FireLarge
• 30 days: FirePlus and reseller hosting

Frequently asked questions

Will I be notified when a mail lands in the quarantine?
No. If you miss a forwarded mail, check the Mail Quarantine. The mail is always present in the mailbox itself.

An important mail keeps ending up in the quarantine.
Let the sender through with Always allow sender or Allow whole domain. From then on it will no longer be held back.

Is there a better solution than forwarding?
Yes. Instead of forwarding mails to Gmail, GMX or Hotmail, set up your mailbox directly in your mail program or on your smartphone (IMAP). There you see your mails together with your other account. Then no mails go through third-party servers and nothing ends up in the quarantine.

I have Windows hosting.
The Mail Quarantine is only available on the Linux web hosting servers.