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Email Routing

Posted by Nishi on 22 January 2025

With Zoho Mail, you can redirect or send a copy of an email automatically by configuring Email Routing. Email Routing is helpful in many situations like if you want to automatically send a copy of one user's email to another. Or you can specify a particular user to whom all the emails that your organization receives with an unknown recipient have to be forwarded. Or you can use routing to increase security against spam.  

Configure Email Routing in Zoho Mail

You can configure Email Routing, Inbound Gateway, and Outbound Gateway depending on your requirement. To configure routing to your account,

  1. Login to Zoho Mail Admin Console.
  2. Navigate to Mail Settings in the left pane and go to Email Routing.
  3. In the Email Routing section, click Configure routing or Add.
  4. Select the domain for which you want to enable Routing from the drop-down list.
  5. Enter other relevant details and click Add. This verification process may take a while before the routing configuration gets added.

When you add configurations for email routing, it's set at the disabled condition by default. To Enable or Disable your routing configuration, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to Mail Settings in the left pane and go to Email Routing.
  2. Select the routing configuration you want to enable from the list.
  3. Under Routing Details, enable or disable it by toggling the Status.

Parameters required:

  1. Destination HostThe destination host is a domain name, MX record, or the IP address of a valid email server that can receive emails directly. When a domain name is provided in the destination, the routed emails will be delivered to the MX records of the domain which has been provided as the destination. In case MX records are provided directly in the destination, the emails will be directly routed to the provided servers.
  2. Verification Email AddressBefore email routing can be enabled, a verification email will be delivered to the routed server to confirm the validity of the chosen destination server details. You need to provide a valid email address to which a verification email will be sent. Only if the email has been successfully delivered, the email routing can be enabled.
  3. Change domain to match the provided destinationBy default, the domain of verification email address will be set to the domain for which you configure routing. But you can also change your verification email address' domain to the destination host's domain. For example, if you want to enable routing for the domain 'Zylker.com' to destination 'gmail.com' and your verification email is zylker@gmail.com, you can enable this option.

Email Delivery type

  • Split Delivery: Deliver Emails to Non-existing accounts onlyYou can configure Split Delivery when you have a set of accounts in Zoho Mail and the remaining accounts on the other server. When you choose this option, the emails that arrive at the accounts that exist in Zoho are delivered in Zoho. When an email arrives at an account, that does not exist in Zoho, the email will be redirected to the selected destination server, instead of bouncing back the email.
  • Dual Delivery: Parallel email delivery for existing accounts onlyYou can configure Dual Delivery when you want the email delivery in both servers for all the existing accounts in Zoho. In case an email arrives at a nonexistent account, the email will be bounced back directly from Zoho servers and will not be checked in the destination servers. Essentially, Dual Delivery can be configured when you have an email backup or archival service elsewhere or want both the systems to co-exist due to various reasons.
  • Email Routing: Route all emails irrespective of account in ZohoYou can configure the Email Routing option in Zoho Mail when you want all the emails addressed to your account to be routed irrespective of whether the account is set up in Zoho or not. The emails will be delivered to Zoho accounts if it is set up.
  • Custom Routing: Route all emails for specific accountsYou can configure the Custom Routing option when you want all the emails addressed to specific accounts to be routed.

Configure Email Delivery type

You can choose different types of delivery to route your emails in a specific way. To choose an email delivery type, follow these steps:

  1. Login to Zoho Mail Admin Console.
  2. Navigate to Mail Settings in the left pane and go to Email Routing.
  3. Select the routing for which you want to configure the delivery type from the list.
  4. On the routing configuration page of the selected routing, click Basic settings.
  5. Select the routing type you want from the drop-down list.

Note:

  • If you choose Custom Delivery, you can upload a CSV file with the accounts for which you want all the emails to be routed.
  • You can also choose to not retain the routed emails in Zoho Mail by checking the Do not retain Zoho Mail copy option.

Criteria based routing

With the help of Criteria based routing, you can set certain conditions following which the emails will be routed. To enable criteria based routing, follow these steps:

  1. Login to Zoho Mail Admin Console.
  2. Navigate to Mail Settings in the left pane and go to Email Routing.
  3. Select the routing for which you want to configure the delivery type from the list.
  4. On the routing configuration page of the selected routing, click Advanced settings.
  5. Enable the Criteria based routing option by toggling it on.
  6. Select the condition type—AND, OR, NONE.
  7. Select the criteria from the drop-down and enter the respective criteria value.
  8. To add more criteria, click the   icon.

Now, only the emails that satisfy the respective criteria (condition) you have configured will be routed.

Other routing configurations

  • Send Bounce MessageWhen you enable routing to the destination servers, mail to the destination may fail due to various reasons. If you enable the Send bounce option, the bounced email will be sent to the sender. You may enable or disable the bounce emails to the sender by navigating to the Basic settings at the configuration page of the respective routing and toggling this option.
  • Routing for Group MembersGenerally, when an email is routed to a group email address, the email is delivered to the group address alone. If the Routing for Group Members option is toggled on from the Basic settings of the configuration page, the email will be delivered to the mailbox of each of the group members.
  • Recipient username changeWhen enabled under the Advanced settings, you can route emails received by one user account to a different user account. This option is ideally used for spam filtering or email retention. For example, say your organization recipients rebecca@zylker.com, paula@zylker.com, and steve@zylker.com receive emails. You can automatically route any emails received by anyone in your organization to backup@zylker.com by configuring the username as "backup."
  • Recipient domain name changeWhen enabled under the Advanced settings, you can route emails received by a user at one domain and server to the same username hosted with a different domain at a different server. For example, say your domain is zylker.com and you configure zylkertravels.com as the domain part for the routed emails. In this case, when user@zylker.com receives an email at Zoho Mail, it will be automatically routed to user@Zylkertravels.com at the other server.

Configuring Third-Party Email Archival/ Retention Systems

The Incoming and Outgoing gateways are generally used when you use third-party systems for services like Email Archival, Backup, or Retention for corporate policies. The third-party service will provide you with the MX records or IP Address, to use with their services and the IP address from which the copy will be routed to Zoho Mail.

You need to configure the IP address provided by the third-party service as 'Incoming Gateway'. Similarly, to route your outgoing emails through the third-party service, you need to configure the MX or IP address where the service accepts email for backup, as Outgoing Gateway. You can refer here for details about backup options available in Zoho Mail. 

Inbound Gateway

An inbound gateway is a server that routes the emails to the Zoho Mail Servers. If the MX records of your domain are pointed to a legacy server or a backup server, you may configure email routing from your legacy server to Zoho, where the MX is not pointed to Zoho. In such cases, you need to provide the IP addresses of the servers, which relay emails to the accounts here. This will ensure that the configured IP addresses are considered legitimate and whitelisted for your organization.

To add IP addresses to your Inbound Gateway,

  1. Login to Zoho Mail Admin Console.
  2. Navigate to Mail Settings in the left pane and go to Inbound Gateway under Email Routing.
  3. On the Inbound Gateway section, select IPv4 or IPv6 and do one of the following:Enter the IP address and select the subnet mask if IPv4 was selected.Enter the IP address if IPv6 was selected.
  4. Enter the IP address and select the subnet mask if IPv4 was selected.
  5. Enter the IP address if IPv6 was selected.
  6. Once done, click the + icon.

Below are some of the other options available in the inbound gateway section:

  • Reject non-inbound gateway emails - rejects the emails that do not come from the inbound gateway IP addresses.
  • Skip spam processing for all inbound gateway emails - skips spam processing for the emails that come from the IP addresses added to the inbound gateway list.
  • To delete an IP address, hover over the IP. and click the   icon.
and click the icon.
and click the icon.

Outbound Gateway

An outbound email gateway is another server that is configured to relay the outgoing servers of various domains of your organization. You can configure an outbound gateway when you want to relay all the outgoing emails from your server to another SMTP server. The other server will deliver the emails to the respective accounts specified for recipients. The other server may archive emails for backup or email retention purposes.

To configure Outbound Gateway, follow these steps:

  1. Login to Zoho Mail Admin Console.
  2. Navigate to Mail Settings in the left pane and go to Outbound Gateway under Email Routing.
  3. Enter the Destination Host IP address or MX record.
  4. Select your Connection type and the respective Port number will be chosen automatically.
  5. You can choose to authenticate the destination server with its username and password.
  6. Select which users' emails you want to relay through the configured outbound gateway using the Apply for (All users, For selected users, and Except selected users) option.
  7. Once done click Add.
  8. Provide the Verification email address and choose the respective domain (if you have more than one) from the drop-down. 
  9. Click Verify and Add.

Your Outbound Gateway will be configured upon successful verification. You can change the Authentication email address by clicking the Update button next to the email address used for authentication.

You can also change the preference of users' emails that you want to relay through the gateway. Confirm that you want to change the users configuration in the pop-up while changing the users preference.

  • All users - The emails of all the users will be relayed through the gateway.
  • For selected users - Only the emails of selected users will be relayed through the gateway.
  • Except selected users - The emails of the selected users will not be relayed through the gateway.

While choosing the For selected users or Except selected users choices you'll have the following options to add users:

  • Select Users - From the list of users in your organization.
  •  Import Users - Using a CSV or TXT file.

After making the necessary changes click Update. The users selected will be listed below the Selected users section. You can Add/ Import users to the list. You can also remove users from the list by hovering over the respective user in the table and clicking

the icon or by clicking on the Delete button above the table and uploading the CSV or TXT file having the users' detail.
the icon or by clicking on the Delete button above the table and uploading the CSV or TXT file having the users' detail.

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Index / Admin Guide

Zoho Mail provides extensive control panel for the administrators to manage their organization users, email accounts and policies.

Email hosting setup

Zoho Mail Suite provides enterprise features for email hosting to satisfy the needs of organizations of all types and sizes. Zoho Mail provides custom domain-based email address for all members of your organization in no time.

Troubleshooting Domain Verification

When you register the domain with one provider, but point the Nameservers to another provider, then the CNAME/ TXT/ MX/ SPF records added in your Domain Registrar is not considered valid.

Zoho Mail plugin for cPanel

cPanel provides a control panel for domain owners to manage the different aspects of web hosting. Zoho Mail Plugin for cPanel helps you sign up for email hosting with Zoho Mail from within cPanel. This plugin is available under the Email section.

Zoho Mail for Plesk

Plesk is a web hosting platform with a control panel that allows domain owners to manage the different aspects of web hosting. Zoho Mail Plugin for Plesk helps you sign up for email hosting with Zoho Mail from within Plesk. 

Searching Admin Console

Zoho Mail Admin Console provides a centralized interface from where you can manage critical aspects of an organization - the different domains, users, groups, organizational spam control, email policies, to name a few. However, this wealth of information might make navigating through the Admin Console slightly challenging.

Dashboard

The Admin Console Dashboard is the first thing you will see as soon as you login to the Zoho Mail Admin Console. It is a culmination of important data your admin might need at their disposal. You can enable or disable widgets in your dashboard including data on your organization's Email Traffic Stats.

Users

The user details section, provides the list of users already added to the organization. When you click on each user, you can have a detailed view about the particular user. The Admin can also perform a set of actions on the user. The primary email address of the users are listed in the section.

Roles and Privileges

The roles available in Zoho Mail are Super Administrator, Administrator, and User roles. The members of the organizations can assume different roles in Zoho Mail, based on the requirement. The Super Administrator can provide Administrator privileges to other users.

Groups

Groups or Distribution Lists are common email addresses, shared by a set of users for a specific purpose. When an email is sent to the group account, a copy of the email gets delivered to the mailbox of all the members of the Group.

Organization Settings

The administrator can control organization-wide parameters under the Organization section. Settings for the entire organization such as the org name, logo, templates for the welcome email and signature, format for the display name and email address.

Domain Options

Zoho Mail allows organizations to add domains to their organization accounts or even buy domains through Zoho. Your organization members will further be able to send and receive emails using their custom domain-based email addresses in Zoho.

Autodiscovery Settings

The Autodiscovery service ensures that email accounts can easily be configured using the IMAP protocol or on mobile devices using ActiveSync. The procedure varies depending on whether you want to configure it for IMAP or ActiveSync.

Email Policies/ Rules

Email Policies help the administrators control the organization's email sending and receiving parameters. In Zoho Mail, you can define multiple email policies and apply them to various sets of users and groups. 

Advanced Delivery Options

With Zoho Mail, you can redirect or send a copy of an email automatically by configuring Email Routing. Email Routing is helpful in many situations like if you want to automatically send a copy of one user's email to another. 

Security and Compliance Dashboard

The security and compliance dashboard in the Zoho Mail Admin console provides an overview of all the recommended security configurations. It displays the overall compliance score.

Organization Security

Organization accounts hold a lot of sensitive data and there's a need for certain security rules to make sure your data stays safe and is not compromised. The administrator can protect their user and organization data with the help of email security features.

Organization Spam Control

Zoho Mail is a secure email service with a spam control system that provides multiple options to customize the settings such that they suit your organization's needs. 

Zoho Mail Outlook Add-in

Zoho Mail users can now experience enhanced email security and have better control over their preferences with the new Outlook Add-in while using their email client. 

Export User Accounts

The Zoho Mail Admin Console provide options to export or backup users' emails, recover any deleted emails and also retry sending of emails that have failed delivery. 

Data Subject Requests

Organizations deal with an enormous amount of confidential data on a daily basis. So, organizations might receive data subject requests to check for some legal or compliance issues.  

Migration to Zoho Mail

Zoho Mail offers a very simple solution to migrate data from your previous email provider to the respective user accounts in Zoho Mail directly. These user accounts need to be created in Zoho Mail before adding the migration. 

Zoho Exchange Migration Wizard

Zoho user and email migration wizard can be used to discover users and migrate their emails from the Active Directory/ Exchange environment to their accounts in their Zoho Mail organization accounts. 

Application Settings

The administrator can control the settings for other Zoho apps and third-party applications and integrations from the Other App Settings section in the Zoho Mail Admin Console.

Email Retention and eDiscovery

Email retention is the process of retaining emails in an organization for a specific period in an organized manner based on the policies of the organization. 

Email Backup and Recovery

Email backup processes and stores emails in a safe, centralized location that can be retrieved at any point in time. It helps prevent data loss by enabling users to restore email content that has been accidentally deleted or lost.

Reports & Statistics

Zoho Mail has a separate Admin Reports section which comprises of statistics on various aspects of your organization's emailing experience. As an administrator, these reports will help you gain information on all aspects of your organization.

Zoho Toolkit

Zoho Mail provides easy-to-use diagnostic tools to troubleshoot some services. There are options to check the domain and registry details. You can run some basic DNS configuration checks for a specific domain, and analyze message headers.

Subscription

Zoho Mail offers different plans to accommodate different users. One can choose the subscription that would suit their organization from the array of available plans. You can also opt for the mix and match plan to have a tailor-made subscription.

Firewall settings

Configure your firewall settings and allow your organization members to access Zoho Mail without any restrictions. All of the below-mentioned domains have to be whitelisted even if you don't see activity at those addresses.

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