Why we retracted our MXRoute-to-Gmail forwarding guide (and what to do instead)

This post used to walk through redirecting mail from MXRoute to Gmail using a filter rule set up in Roundcube webmail. We're retracting that method. MXRoute's own admin publicly asked customers to stop doing exactly this back in 2020, because it violates their terms of service. Here's why, in his words, and what to do instead.

Why we pulled it

Jarland Donnell, MXRoute's administrator, wrote this to customers:

We've seen an increase in customers creating email filters to forward all email to third party services, rather than creating forwarders in DirectAdmin, thanks to misguided tutorials and bad advice offered around the internet. This is me begging you, if you are engaging in this process please halt this immediately and set up forwarders correctly.

To forward email you should log in to DirectAdmin and then click on E-mail Manager, followed by clicking on Forwarders. You can add multiple recipients here if you need to, no problem.

Please understand that filters are not intelligent, they do not understand context. They merely perform exactly the task you set them to and no other. This means that filters configured to forward all email to third parties actually violate our policy, and we can't prevent it unless we break ALL filters which use the redirect function (and that does have many legitimate uses). Our policy is clear: under no circumstances are MXroute customers permitted to spoof "From" headers to display a third party service. You are not authorized to directly send as (meaning the domain in the "From" header) any domain that you do not own or manage.

If you forward email with filters, you do not utilize SRS. SRS is a required standard for forwarding emails. In many cases, this is resulting in customers sending email to Gmail that claims to be from Gmail, but is being sent from our servers. Google doesn't like this, so not only are you shooting yourself in the foot on delivery of these emails, you're also damaging our IP reputation which impacts the inbox delivery quality for you and the rest of our customers.

Kind Regards,
Jarland Donnell
MXroute Administrator

Why filter-forwarding breaks

Short version, in his words above: it's against their ToS, and because a filter doesn't use SRS (Sender Rewriting Scheme), the forwarded mail can look like it's spoofing the original "From" address. Gmail and other big providers flag that. Your forwarded mail gets a worse shot at landing in the inbox, and it drags down MXRoute's sending reputation for everyone else on the same servers, not just you.

What to do instead

Two options that don't break anything:

• Use MXRoute's own forwarders: log into DirectAdmin, go to E-mail Manager, then Forwarders. This is the method MXRoute actually supports, and it handles SRS correctly. See MXRoute's forwarders documentation for the full walkthrough.
• Skip forwarding entirely: add the MXRoute mailbox to Gmail over IMAP (Settings > Accounts and Import > Check mail from other accounts) and just read it from there. Nothing gets forwarded, so there's nothing to spoof.

For what it's worth, this is also why we always push clients toward hosting email with a proper third-party provider – MXRoute, Google Workspace, Zoho, whatever suits – rather than on cPanel webmail sitting on the same box as the website. cPanel webmail is a HUGE NO-NO! Keep email and hosting separate, and use the forwarding tools your provider actually built for the job.