own domain universal usernames

[Merovingian]

In setting up my own domain for mail service, what type of "universal" usernames or aliases do most use?
I know " webmaster @---------" , and " postmaster @----------" are pretty universal, but what other usernames or aliases are common?

[Berenburger]

Originally Posted by Merovingian

.... but what other usernames or aliases are common?

abuse@....................

[filtered]

help@....................
support@....................

[Killer]

admin(s)
administrator(s)
system
tech(s)
techsupport(s)

[amitraj]

info@....................

[Merovingian]

Great suggestions, all of them. I made note of them all. Thanks!
Also, what about generic recipient boxes, such as:
" mail@........"
" inbox@......"

Any other suggestions? (I appreciate all of these, I'm not so creative).

[n5bb]

From personal experience, I will warn you that all of these common addresses are some of the most common ones used by spammers. I had to remove wildcard aliases at my domain due to this problem. So use unusual addresses if want to reduce dictionary spam to your domain!

Bill

[Killer]

How about restrict usernames to 6 characters and above?

[Merovingian]

Originally Posted by n5bb

From personal experience, I will warn you that all of these common addresses are some of the most common ones used by spammers. I had to remove wildcard aliases at my domain due to this problem. So use unusual addresses if want to reduce dictionary spam to your domain!
Bill

I hadn't considered this......
thanks for the info. Will it make a difference if the domain/tld is quite unusual?

[n5bb]

Originally Posted by Merovingian

... Will it make a difference if the domain/tld is quite unusual?

I don't think so. Your domain name will eventually fall into their hands via email skimming or a website link. The spammer then uses a dictionary attack to send messages to common local-parts (the part of the address before the @). My guess is this is totally automated and that you might go for a few hours or a few years before some spammer finds your domain and randomly tries the commonly used addresses. The spammers send out millions of emails hoping for just a few hits, and the more common the local-part you use for your addresses the more spam you will get. It's hard to predict -- you might get zero or hundreds a day, depending on how hard spammers target your domain.

So you should use an email system with good spam filtering for your domain. I have found that the current Fastmail spam filtering features work very well for my domain. If your email system allows address book whitelisting, you should use this feature to insure that you receive all emails from desired senders.

Bill

[theog]

I use a domain with the word "spam" in front of the @ for my domains and sites I might not trust... it has 0 spam in it.... My only guess is that maybe spammers filter out that word? I'm a bit surprised since I have over 100 domains and have used that email for years (maybe 5 or 6 years). No filters or spam control on it.

[Merovingian]

Originally Posted by n5bb

I don't think so. Your domain name will eventually fall into their hands via email skimming or a website link. The spammer then uses a dictionary attack to send messages to common local-parts (the part of the address before the @). My guess is this is totally automated and that you might go for a few hours or a few years before some spammer finds your domain and randomly tries the commonly used addresses. The spammers send out millions of emails hoping for just a few hits, and the more common the local-part you use for your addresses the more spam you will get. It's hard to predict -- you might get zero or hundreds a day, depending on how hard spammers target your domain.Bill

..sounds bleak and gloomy

BUT -- I am using Fastmail to host what domains I do have, and they seem to be doing a very good job with the per-user setup. I get minimal spam in my spam folder and non in my inbox. Hooray Fastmail !

[Merovingian]

Originally Posted by theog

I use a domain with the word "spam" in front of the @ for my domains and sites I might not trust... it has 0 spam in it.... My only guess is that maybe spammers filter out that word? I'm a bit surprised since I have over 100 domains and have used that email for years (maybe 5 or 6 years). No filters or spam control on it.

That's quite interesting! I will have to try something similar to see how it goes for me.

[n5bb]

My feeling is that there are no guarantees about spam. Certain behaviors can make it easier for the spammers to get to you, but there is no magic method for excluding them from your domain. My problem with using a local-part containing "spam" is that some recipients may accidentally or purposefully filter out manually or automatically email from such a name. But it's your domain, and you can do with it what you will.

Bill

[theog]

Originally Posted by n5bb

My feeling is that there are no guarantees about spam. Certain behaviors can make it easier for the spammers to get to you, but there is no magic method for excluding them from your domain. My problem with using a local-part containing "spam" is that some recipients may accidentally or purposefully filter out manually or automatically email from such a name. But it's your domain, and you can do with it what you will.

Bill

In my case I use it for domains and other stuff where I'm expecting a return email immediately. Like I said, been using it for years without any issues… but yes, I see your point, if you were to use the domain as a “regular” domain it might get filtered. I could see the word spam getting trapped in some custom filters if in the headers. Lol…

In my case, I don’t care since if I think someone has sent a help request (not support, but help) and I think it is spam, but I want to answer (just in case), I’ll send it from there… been doing it for years…

I don’t know why I don’t get any spam on it…. Maybe I should take one of my other domains and put the same name before the @ and post it all over the net and see what happens. lol