Why is NameCheap's e-mail forwarding "crap"?

Shazzer · 7 Sep 2006, 05:42 PM

I know this may appear to be "off-topic" for this particular forum, but bear with me for a sec.

I've seen (buried in other threads here) several references to NameCheap's e-mail forwarding feature as "crap" and I'd like to know why some of the more technically savvy folks here (whose opinions I respect) feel that way.

I purchased my personal domain at namecheap.com specifically because they made it very simple for me to forward my email directly to FastMail (and my Gmail backup account) without having to go through a third party service like pobox or zoneedit. To my mind, the fewer relays between sender and inbox the better, because introducing a third step in the process just creates one more location where the system can break down.

Is my thinking flawed on this issue? Or is NameCheap's forwarding service so unreliable that it's actually better to park the MX records with a third-party service? Thanks in advance for your replies. I'm learning a TON from this forum lately and I'm really grateful for it.

David · 8 Sep 2006, 12:02 AM

It was me that said Namecheap's forwarding was crap.

Namecheap are locked into using Enorm's Forwarding which is why their forwarding is crap....

Namecheap are a great company though (and provide a cheap super service) I would use them (again) in spite of their bad forwarding (which I don't use these days)

If you do a search you will find that many people are in agreement with me. Namecheap are the best domain registrar (imo) in spite of their flaky forwarding

funso · 8 Sep 2006, 12:15 AM

I use namecheap for all my domains. On my main domains I use my own name servers. I use their mail forwarding service for my other domains and can confirm that it can be flaky at times, but not enough for me to stop using it

**Shelded** · 8 Sep 2006, 05:58 AM

I use namecheap for all my current registrations and recommend namecheap for registration. I never use the forwarding except in emergency. Their fwd service is so bad I can't use it.

I put the MX with Fastmail or with Zoneedit or Mydomain. You think you're adding another point of failure but actually having DNS host (registrar) and MX host separate is beneficial with no negative. If MX host is dead you can log into DNS host and move it (I have had to do this). Otherwise you are stuck until your all-in-one host comes up (done that too when the host was being DDOSd for days).

If I want to send email to you at foo.bar I ask DNS for foo.bar MX and get the smtp.foo.bar. Then I ask DNS for the IP of smtp.foo.bar. Those are all diff computers anyway, may as well have diff providers all over.

Shazzer · 8 Sep 2006, 06:46 AM

Thanks for the information guys. If I were to move my MX records to zoneedite or mydomain, which one has the shorter propogation time? Even though my new e-mail address has only been up for a week, it's now receiving a good chunk of my personal e-mail, and I'd hate to be cut off from it (or loose any of mail) in the transition.

**Shelded** · 8 Sep 2006, 10:46 AM

We really should spell this out as a process (or find where it has already been done elsewhere) because I think we will soon have a huge number of people adjusting their MX hosts.

You have namecheap as your registrar, right? The second you change your MX away from them they will drop you. Well before that you need to get the new host set up and waiting for the DNS to switch. I would rather try this with ZE than MyDomain because sometimes MD seems to just put things in a 2-hour queue.

[disclaimers on]
I am not making a commitment about how fast this will be picked up by the global servers, but it's been a long time since I have had to wait 72 hours for propagation. I usually only make the MX transitions in emergencies where I have no alternative but to take my hits and it's done in an hour or two.
Here's an idea I have never done but sounds like a good transition: bring the TTL down to 1200 seconds a couple days beforehand, see if you can list the new MX as secondary, and when you see the global servers pick up the new DNS you can remove the (old) primary. The failover to your new server will happen with no lost mail. The panel at namecheap may not allow you this flexibility because they assume when you list them as MX you want their mail forwarding, and if you are not using their mail forwarding you don't need their MX. Comments anyone?
[/disclaimers off]

Shazzer · 8 Sep 2006, 04:23 PM

Thanks for this explanation Shelded, but you completely lost me starting with "bring the TTL down to 1200..."!

I do get the part about setting things up at zoneedit BEFORE telling namecheap that I want to move my DNS there.

I agree that some kind of tutorial for exactly how to do this (via zoneedit or mydomain or the like) would be extremely helpful to non-techies like myself. So far the support info available to me has been more confusing than anything else, and I don't want to screw something up and end up cut off from my e-mail for another three days.

**Shelded** · 8 Sep 2006, 04:36 PM

Sorry, I blazed through that not as a tutorial but as a hashing out of the process which I hope someone else can confirm and possibly flesh out. I can't say I have done it that way before and I'm sure we have others here who know precisely how to do it.

DrStrabismus · 8 Sep 2006, 09:54 PM

In my experience changing mx entries is generally pretty smooth. The long progagation delays occur when you move your DNS, not your mail, MX records are just governed by a short caching time - typically 1 hour. Furthermore, your mx records are probably not all that widely cached anyway. If I login to another webmail service, after changing my MX records, and send a test , it goes by the new route.

It used to be the case that Enoms forwarders would relay your mail irrespective of your MX settings, so they could used as free backup servers. Unfortunately they changed all that. I don't know if they cut-off immediately now, but even if they do, the chances are you wont lose much - particularly if you change over late at night. It's thing like mailing lists that are most vulnerable.

Shazzer · 8 Sep 2006, 11:22 PM

Thanks for the reassurances.

I am in the midst of a "test-drive" with two domains I own but am not presently using for e-mail (or anything else for that matter). One is registered with namecheap and the other with godaddy.

I created an account at zoneedit this morning and added both domains. I then logged in at namecheap and godaddy and changed my DNS records. (It was actually a lot simpler than I thought it would be.)

Six hours later, the catchall addresses for both domains are forwarding to my yahoo.com account as directed, though the zoneedit page is still warning me that it could take up to two days for all servers to be aware of my new DNS servers.

I'm almost embarrassed now that I was so unnerved about trying this. I'm going go ahead and switch my new domain e-mail DNS overnight tonight.

DrStrabismus · 9 Sep 2006, 01:25 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Shazzer
Thanks for the reassurances.
..
Six hours later, the catchall addresses for both domains are forwarding to my yahoo.com account as directed, though the zoneedit page is still warning me that it could take up to two days for all servers to be aware of my new DNS servers.

Actually, I don't know if anyone was reassuring you about that. Changing your MX settings is generally problem free. Moving DNS can leave you with days of disruption.

Shazzer · 9 Sep 2006, 03:17 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by DrStrabismus
Actually, I don't know if anyone was reassuring you about that. Changing your MX settings is generally problem free. Moving DNS can leave you with days of disruption.

Sorry, should have been clearer. I meant the reassurances that moving my DNS to zoneedit was worth the downtime in order to avoid namecheap's dodgy forwarding. I realize I'm in for some mail disruption regardless...I'm just hopeful that doing it over the weekend will keep the number of missed messages to a minimum.

**Shelded** · 9 Sep 2006, 04:08 AM

Again, note that moving your DNS is not needed. I like the DNS panel at Namecheap/Enom. For example, I use that panel to identify my MX server as zoneedit's. According to DrStrabismus that might take an hour to update (my exp has been up to a couple hours).

Would not want you to think that your entire set of DNS records needs to move to Zoneedit to get this done. Esp since pulling back to Namecheap (your registrar) can be very fast if you keep the DNS there.

Shazzer · 9 Sep 2006, 06:11 AM

Just when I *thought* I knew what I was doing!

So now I'm REALLY confused. Are you saying that I only need to move my MX records to zoneedit? What's the advantage of that over relocating the DNS (other than the lengthy propogation issue)?

jtfast · 9 Sep 2006, 06:56 AM

Yeah, doesn't zoneedit require you to move dns records to them to add a zone to use their mail forwarding?

Jeff

Quote:

Originally posted by Shazzer
Just when I *thought* I knew what I was doing!

So now I'm REALLY confused. Are you saying that I only need to move my MX records to zoneedit? What's the advantage of that over relocating the DNS (other than the lengthy propogation issue)?

7 Sep 2006, 05:42 PM	#1
Shazzer Essential Contributor Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Malmö, Sweden Posts: 204	Why is NameCheap's e-mail forwarding "crap"? I know this may appear to be "off-topic" for this particular forum, but bear with me for a sec. I've seen (buried in other threads here) several references to NameCheap's e-mail forwarding feature as "crap" and I'd like to know why some of the more technically savvy folks here (whose opinions I respect) feel that way. I purchased my personal domain at namecheap.com specifically because they made it very simple for me to forward my email directly to FastMail (and my Gmail backup account) without having to go through a third party service like pobox or zoneedit. To my mind, the fewer relays between sender and inbox the better, because introducing a third step in the process just creates one more location where the system can break down. Is my thinking flawed on this issue? Or is NameCheap's forwarding service so unreliable that it's actually better to park the MX records with a third-party service? Thanks in advance for your replies. I'm learning a TON from this forum lately and I'm really grateful for it.

8 Sep 2006, 11:22 PM	#10
Shazzer Essential Contributor Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Malmö, Sweden Posts: 204	Thanks for the reassurances. I am in the midst of a "test-drive" with two domains I own but am not presently using for e-mail (or anything else for that matter). One is registered with namecheap and the other with godaddy. I created an account at zoneedit this morning and added both domains. I then logged in at namecheap and godaddy and changed my DNS records. (It was actually a lot simpler than I thought it would be.) Six hours later, the catchall addresses for both domains are forwarding to my yahoo.com account as directed, though the zoneedit page is still warning me that it could take up to two days for all servers to be aware of my new DNS servers. I'm almost embarrassed now that I was so unnerved about trying this. I'm going go ahead and switch my new domain e-mail DNS overnight tonight. Last edited by Shazzer : 8 Sep 2006 at 11:37 PM.

8 Sep 2006, 12:02 AM	#2
David Ultimate Contributor Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Canada. Posts: 10,355	It was me that said Namecheap's forwarding was crap. Namecheap are locked into using Enorm's Forwarding which is why their forwarding is crap.... Namecheap are a great company though (and provide a cheap super service) I would use them (again) in spite of their bad forwarding (which I don't use these days) If you do a search you will find that many people are in agreement with me. Namecheap are the best domain registrar (imo) in spite of their flaky forwarding

8 Sep 2006, 12:15 AM	#3
funso Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Manchester, UK Posts: 97	I use namecheap for all my domains. On my main domains I use my own name servers. I use their mail forwarding service for my other domains and can confirm that it can be flaky at times, but not enough for me to stop using it

8 Sep 2006, 05:58 AM	#4
Shelded Moderator Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: USA Northwest Posts: 3,849	I use namecheap for all my current registrations and recommend namecheap for registration. I never use the forwarding except in emergency. Their fwd service is so bad I can't use it. I put the MX with Fastmail or with Zoneedit or Mydomain. You think you're adding another point of failure but actually having DNS host (registrar) and MX host separate is beneficial with no negative. If MX host is dead you can log into DNS host and move it (I have had to do this). Otherwise you are stuck until your all-in-one host comes up (done that too when the host was being DDOSd for days). If I want to send email to you at foo.bar I ask DNS for foo.bar MX and get the smtp.foo.bar. Then I ask DNS for the IP of smtp.foo.bar. Those are all diff computers anyway, may as well have diff providers all over.

8 Sep 2006, 06:46 AM	#5
Shazzer Essential Contributor Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Malmö, Sweden Posts: 204	Thanks for the information guys. If I were to move my MX records to zoneedite or mydomain, which one has the shorter propogation time? Even though my new e-mail address has only been up for a week, it's now receiving a good chunk of my personal e-mail, and I'd hate to be cut off from it (or loose any of mail) in the transition.

8 Sep 2006, 10:46 AM	#6
Shelded Moderator Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: USA Northwest Posts: 3,849	We really should spell this out as a process (or find where it has already been done elsewhere) because I think we will soon have a huge number of people adjusting their MX hosts. You have namecheap as your registrar, right? The second you change your MX away from them they will drop you. Well before that you need to get the new host set up and waiting for the DNS to switch. I would rather try this with ZE than MyDomain because sometimes MD seems to just put things in a 2-hour queue. [disclaimers on] I am not making a commitment about how fast this will be picked up by the global servers, but it's been a long time since I have had to wait 72 hours for propagation. I usually only make the MX transitions in emergencies where I have no alternative but to take my hits and it's done in an hour or two. Here's an idea I have never done but sounds like a good transition: bring the TTL down to 1200 seconds a couple days beforehand, see if you can list the new MX as secondary, and when you see the global servers pick up the new DNS you can remove the (old) primary. The failover to your new server will happen with no lost mail. The panel at namecheap may not allow you this flexibility because they assume when you list them as MX you want their mail forwarding, and if you are not using their mail forwarding you don't need their MX. Comments anyone? [/disclaimers off]

8 Sep 2006, 04:23 PM	#7
Shazzer Essential Contributor Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Malmö, Sweden Posts: 204	Thanks for this explanation Shelded, but you completely lost me starting with "bring the TTL down to 1200..."! I do get the part about setting things up at zoneedit BEFORE telling namecheap that I want to move my DNS there. I agree that some kind of tutorial for exactly how to do this (via zoneedit or mydomain or the like) would be extremely helpful to non-techies like myself. So far the support info available to me has been more confusing than anything else, and I don't want to screw something up and end up cut off from my e-mail for another three days.

8 Sep 2006, 04:36 PM	#8
Shelded Moderator Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: USA Northwest Posts: 3,849	Sorry, I blazed through that not as a tutorial but as a hashing out of the process which I hope someone else can confirm and possibly flesh out. I can't say I have done it that way before and I'm sure we have others here who know precisely how to do it.

8 Sep 2006, 09:54 PM	#9
DrStrabismus The "e" in e-mail Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 2,804	In my experience changing mx entries is generally pretty smooth. The long progagation delays occur when you move your DNS, not your mail, MX records are just governed by a short caching time - typically 1 hour. Furthermore, your mx records are probably not all that widely cached anyway. If I login to another webmail service, after changing my MX records, and send a test , it goes by the new route. It used to be the case that Enoms forwarders would relay your mail irrespective of your MX settings, so they could used as free backup servers. Unfortunately they changed all that. I don't know if they cut-off immediately now, but even if they do, the chances are you wont lose much - particularly if you change over late at night. It's thing like mailing lists that are most vulnerable.

9 Sep 2006, 04:08 AM	#13
Shelded Moderator Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: USA Northwest Posts: 3,849	Again, note that moving your DNS is not needed. I like the DNS panel at Namecheap/Enom. For example, I use that panel to identify my MX server as zoneedit's. According to DrStrabismus that might take an hour to update (my exp has been up to a couple hours). Would not want you to think that your entire set of DNS records needs to move to Zoneedit to get this done. Esp since pulling back to Namecheap (your registrar) can be very fast if you keep the DNS there.

9 Sep 2006, 06:11 AM	#14
Shazzer Essential Contributor Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Malmö, Sweden Posts: 204	Just when I thought I knew what I was doing! So now I'm REALLY confused. Are you saying that I only need to move my MX records to zoneedit? What's the advantage of that over relocating the DNS (other than the lengthy propogation issue)?