How can I turn email off?

[RichardMcC]

I have just moved a domain to powweb.com, and in the past have received a lot of spam sent to addresses at that domain. I do not want to send or receive any email from this domain, and want to know how to turn email off.

Thanks.

[B&T]

You can turn off smtp in OPS.

But I would just set up smtp so all the mail sent to that domain bounces back to the sender. I think you can do that just by having no entries in the smtp tab. Easy to test.

[stevel]

Please don't set it to bounce back. Use the "bit-bucket" setting instead. If you bounce spam, the bounces will go to innocent people whose addresses are forged by spammers.

Turning off SMTP is probably a better choice for you.

[B&T]

But someone is going to send you mail to your domain assuming you will get it. It you bounce it at least they will know you did not get it. If it disappears (bit-bucket), they will assume you got it.

[Jade Dragon]

I'll agree to the bounce back system. If a spammer spoofs your address and you use the bit bucket, the refering hosts believe that the address is valid. If you bounce these messages then the refering hosts know that it was spoofed.

All bit bucket does is delete incoming mail from specific addresses.

Also just going to a bit bucket confirms as being delivered in spam lists. Bouncing them will (eventually) reduce the incoming spam to your account, by giving an "undeliverable" to the spam bots.

=)
Jade

[TMarie820]

how do you set it to bounce back if you want to use an address then?

example... i get a lot of emails that go to addresses I don't have..... sometimes they are typos and i'd rather have them bounced back... is there a way to do that or do they just have to go to the bit bucket

[B&T]

You can specify an email to go to a POP User or the bit-bucket. Any individual email address or the catch-all.

Any email address that is not specified gets bounced.

[TMarie820]

so if my @glidersanonymous.com one goes to no one they all get bounced?

[B&T]

so if my @glidersanonymous.com one goes to no one they all get bounced?
If there is no catch-all @glidersanonymous.com they all get bounced. If you have a @glidersanonymous.com then I think you must specify it to go to either a user or the bit-bucket.

Of course you this would not effect other email addresses you have specifically set up.

[stevel]

I regret that I have to disagree with Jade here.

Using the bit-bucket does not confirm anything for the spammer. Many SMTP servers explicitly do not reject invalid addresses on the incoming request because spammers use this for validating addresses. The bit bucket is also not tied to the sender - it says that any mail sent TO a particular address is discarded silently.

If you truly don't want to use the domain for e-mail, disable SMTP. Legitimate senders will get a meaningful error and will presumably try to contact you some other way. Spammers will just skip it and move on. This avoids deluging innocent victims of forged sender addresses from receiving bounces for your spam.

However, there are other solutions, such as GOOD spam filtering. I use SpamCop (http://spamcop.net/).

[B&T]

I regret that I have to disagree with Jade here.
I can't believe you did that.

[RichardMcC]

Wow! This is a very active forum, great to see! All the input is appreciated..

So I signed into OPS and went into SMTP and clicked Stop next to the default email account that was created. It now appears as scored out so is presumably inactive. But when I click on the General tab, SMTP still shows as active. Is there something more I need to do to follow Stevel's advice to disable SMTP on this account?

Do I need to edit or delete the MX record?

Thanks!