Mail that is held back

On some servers there is an extra machine in front of the mail server: a mail gateway. All mail for your domain arrives there first, is checked there, and only then goes on to your mailbox. What looks suspicious does not go on — it stays on the gateway, in the quarantine.

This page is about that quarantine: how to see what is being held, and how to get a message through anyway.

Where to find it — Panel → Hosting → Accounts → your account → E-mail → Quarantine. If that tab is not there, there is no mail gateway in front of your server. The mail server filters for itself then, and unwanted mail belongs in the Junk folder — see Keeping spam out.

What you see

One row per message the gateway is holding, newest first:

The last seven days are shown by default. The menu above the table on the right switches to one day or thirty, and the search box filters on sender, recipient or subject.

You see only mail for your own domains. What the gateway holds for another customer is neither visible to you nor requestable.

Getting a message through anyway

1. Click the row. A panel slides open on the right with everything about it.
2. Click Deliver anyway.

The message is delivered to the mailbox it was addressed to, exactly as it was sent. It is there within a few seconds.

Does mail from this sender keep getting stuck? Releasing only does something for this message. Put the sender on the mailbox's allow list — E-mail → click the mailbox → the Spam tab → Always allow — and they come straight through from then on. With a mail gateway in front of your server the panel writes that rule in both places at once: on the mail server and on the gateway.

Deleting a message

The same panel has Delete message. The panel asks for a confirmation first, because this cannot be undone: the message is then gone from the gateway and can no longer be delivered.

You do not have to delete anything. What you leave alone disappears on its own once the gateway's retention period is up.

What changes about your DNS

With a gateway in front of your server, your domain's MX points at the gateway instead of at the mail server itself. That is exactly the intent: it is how mail arrives there first. If we host your DNS this is already arranged and there is nothing for you to do.

If your DNS is somewhere else, look at E-mail → DNS records for what should be published now. The MX is the gateway's name; mail.<your domain> keeps pointing at the mail server, because that is where your mail program signs in to collect and send mail. That does not change.

Checking for yourself where your mail arrives

If you want to see with your own eyes that mail goes past the gateway first, ask for your domain's MX. This works from any computer:

dig +short MX yourdomain.com

10 pmg.corecp.dev.

The gateway's name there means it is right. For comparison: the name your mail program signs in to still points at the mail server itself, and that is how it should be:

dig +short CNAME mail.yourdomain.com

stck1.corecp.dev.

When something is not right