TrekMail

  Email forwarding fails because modern security protocols (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) are designed to stop it. To a receiving server, a forwarded email looks identical to a spoofed email: a server that isn't the original sender is attempting to deliver mail on their behalf. When forwarding breaks, you rarely get a clear error. You get silence. This guide provides a rapid triage workflow to isolate the failure, followed by a forensic checklist to fix the root cause. For a deep dive into the mechanics of SRS and ARC, refer to our core documentation: Email Forwarding: How It Works, How to Set It Up, and How to Fix It When It Breaks (2026) . The 60-Second Triage: Identify the Symptom Do not guess. Categorize the failure behavior immediately to determine the fix. Symptom Behavior Likely Culprit Immediate Action The Bounce (NDR) Sender receives a 5xx error immediately. Policy Block or Invalid Address Read the SM...

If you're running a domain, email forwarding is probably one of the first things you set up. And it's often the first thing to break. On the surface, it looks simple: take an email sent to info@yourdomain.com and send it over to you@gmail.com. But the reality is messy. Forwarding is a complex "man-in-the-middle" operation that messes with the core trust models of the internet: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. For a Founder, a broken forward means missed investor updates. For an MSP managing 50 domains, it means a support ticket storm. The old way meant fragile client-side rules in Outlook or paying for expensive per-user licenses just to redirect mail. The new way—the standard for 2026—is server-side routing that preserves authentication chains and cuts out per-seat costs. This guide breaks down how forwarding actually works, why it fails, and how to build a setup that reliably delivers. The Mental Model: That "New Hop" Problem To fix forwarding, you ...

Most people think email is "solved." It’s old (1971), it’s ubiquitous, and mostly, it’s boring. Until it isn't.   The moment you start managing email for a real business—handling custom domains, setting up mailboxes for employees, or routing inbound traffic—you learn a blunt lesson: Email isn’t an app. It’s operations. You can ship a beautiful UI for creating mailboxes in a weekend. But you cannot ship reliability in a weekend. Reliability is the product. This is a practical look at the invisible infrastructure "chain of custody" that breaks when you move beyond a simple Gmail account, and what I learned about the grim reality of SMTP, DNS, and deliverability while building an ops-first email platform.   The Stack You Don't See When a user says "email," they picture an inbox. When an operator looks at email, they see a hostile environment. A single message delivery relies on a fragile chain: DNS : The phonebook (MX) and the...