Email forwarding and mailing lists

How forwarding works now

PW Hosting email forwarding and mailing lists do not behave exactly like ProHosting email accounts with forwarding enabled. This is intentional. The old behavior was not compatible with modern email reputation and authentication rules.

What ProHosting used to do

ProHosting email accounts with forwarding enabled effectively resent the original message to new recipients while keeping the original sender identity. For example, if a Gmail user sent a message to one of those accounts, ProHosting could attempt to send a new copy of that message as though it still came directly from the Gmail user.

That behavior is commonly called spoofing. It may have appeared convenient, but it makes the hosting mail server look like it is sending mail for domains it does not control.

Why that is bad for mail delivery

Modern email systems check whether the server sending a message is allowed to send for the address in the From line. These checks are part of how providers fight spam, phishing, and forged email.

When a hosting server resends mail as if it came from an outside domain, receiving mail systems can treat that message as forged. Enough of that behavior can damage the sending server's reputation and cause legitimate mail to be delayed, filtered, or rejected.

For that reason, PW Hosting does not run forwarding in the old ProHosting style. Our mail system is designed to protect server reputation and keep customer mail deliverable.

How forwarding works at PW Hosting

Forwarding now behaves like a normal email forward. The forwarded copy is sent in a way the PW Hosting mail server is allowed to send. That means the forwarded message may not look exactly like the original message in every mail app.

This is the tradeoff: the old way tried to preserve the original message appearance by pretending to be the original sender. The new way preserves deliverability by sending the forwarded copy honestly.

If you need to see the exact original message as it arrived, the correct setup is to add the original mailbox to your email client using IMAP rather than relying only on a forwarded copy.

How mailing lists work

A mailing list is different from forwarding. A forward takes mail delivered to one mailbox and sends a forwarded copy somewhere else. A mailing list receives one message at the list address and then distributes that message to every member of the list.

That distribution step has the same email authentication problem described above. If the list receives a message from an outside provider, such as Gmail, and then sends copies of that message to the list members while preserving the Gmail sender identity, the PW Hosting mail server would be sending mail as Gmail. That is spoofing, and modern mail systems are designed to reject or penalize it.

For that reason, PW Hosting mailing lists only distribute messages from senders we are authorized to send for. In practical terms, a sender using an address on your hosted domain can send to the list and have that message distributed to the list recipients, because PW Hosting is authorized to send for that domain.

If someone sends to the list from an outside provider, the list cannot safely resend that message as the outside provider. Only that provider's own mail servers are authorized to send that provider's mail. For example, only Gmail's mail servers are authorized to send Gmail mail.

This means mailing lists should be treated as internal or domain-authorized distribution lists, not as general-purpose resend-everything addresses. If outside people need to contact your team, send them to a mailbox or shared address instead of expecting a mailing list to redistribute outside-provider mail unchanged.

What this means for customers

This is a behavior change from ProHosting, and some workflows will need to adjust. Forwarded mail will look like forwarded mail. Mailing lists will only distribute messages when the sender is one PW Hosting can legitimately send for.

That is the correct behavior for the current email environment. It protects domain reputation, reduces blacklist risk, and gives customer mail a better chance of being accepted by modern mail providers.