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Thread: Gmail: Changing who an email is "From"

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  1. #1

    Default Gmail: Changing who an email is "From"

    I use my personal Gmail for all my emails, work or pleasure. I have a work email address but its a 'dummy' one from a domain name I own that simply instantly forwards the email sent to the more professional-sounding work email address to my own. The problem is that when I reply to the email etc it is from my personal account.

    Is there any way to change what appears as the "from" so that it appears to be something it's not, my professional-sounding work domain address.

  2. #2
    You mean have emails sent from your personal account "ghost" your work email?

    I do that with sSettings --> Accounts and Import --> Send mail as --? Send mail from another address

  3. #3
    I've tried that and its showing my real email address still. I sent a Test email to a colleague and got them to reply back and this is what it said my From was:

    From: <My real email address> [mailto:<my real email address>] On Behalf Of Philip Thompson

    That is my real email address.
    Last edited by RandBlade; 01-24-2011 at 07:20 PM.

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by RandBlade View Post
    I've tried that and its showing my real email address still. I sent a Test email to a colleague and got them to reply back and this is what it said my From was:
    Pssst, Rand - we regularly get crawled by sniffer bots. I know gmail's anti-spam software is pretty good, but you might want to remove your address so it doesn't get too badly tested.

  5. #5
    I just tried it with my linked hotmail and extra gmail accounts. They all displayed the correct email and display name that I choose to send it under.

  6. #6
    I never had a problem with it - although I couldn't make it send mail from my phone on the linked account as if it was coming from the real one, so it didn't actually do what I wanted it to and I unlinked them.
    We're stuck in a bloody snowglobe.

  7. #7
    You might try using Thunderbird instead, of course you would have to install it. As smtp you could use the one your ISP offers you.
    "Wer Visionen hat, sollte zum Arzt gehen." - Helmut Schmidt

  8. #8
    Senior Member Flixy's Avatar
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    If you use gmail as outgoing mail server for a non-gmail address it will always say on behalf of. The only way around out is using your ISP or another smtp as outgoing server. Keep in mind that if you use your ISP's it probably will not need a password if you send mail from your home ip, but you will need one if you send mail from a different ip (e.g. your phone). Some ISPs do not allow it at all from different ips. I had the same issue with my band email. I currently use an outgoing mail server from a domain owned by a friend.

  9. #9
    The alternative email address is not from an ISP, does that make a difference? It's just from a simple domain name hosting website and it gets automatically redirected to my Gmail. I've never used my ISP's email.

  10. #10
    Senior Member Flixy's Avatar
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    That's not really the issue. To send an email it needs to go through an outgoing mail server. If you use gmail's server it adds the on behalf of. So you need another outgoing mail server. The reason we mention your ISP is because they usually include an outgoing mail server in their services, so you can use that for free (usually). And check with the host of the domain of the email address you want to use whether they offer an outgoing mail server.

  11. #11
    I've not had that with GMail though. I only access GMail via my browser and I don't have that problem at all. My account successfully "ghosts".

    Wait Rand, are you changing the "reply to" or are you going through the whole process where GMail sends a confirmation code to the forwarding e-mail address?

  12. #12
    Senior Member Flixy's Avatar
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    I think he is trying to send emails that are coming from something@notgmail.com. Which you can't do with gmail AFAIK without the 'on behalf of' appearing in the sender name.
    Keep on keepin' the beat alive!

  13. #13
    That's what I'm saying, I've done that many times in the past. I just tested one now.

    I have one gmail account that gets forwards from [myname@alumni.university.edu]. I configured that GMail account to send e-mails from [myname@alumni.university.edu]. I had to have a confirmation code e-mailed to [myname@alumni.university.edu] and enter it into GMail settings.

    Now whenever I log into my GMail and select that account from the drop-down in the compose box, e-mails received from me are from [myname@alumni.university.edu] with no other information.

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Dreadnaught View Post
    Now whenever I log into my GMail and select that account from the drop-down in the compose box, e-mails received from me are from [myname@alumni.university.edu] with no other information.
    Are you certain? Have you see what it shows when someone replies back to that address keeping the full tags on top of what came from you? Because that's where I'm getting the "On behalf of" bit.

    Yes, I'm using the process you said and had the verification code etc

  15. #15
    Indeedy, just double-checked with a replyback (I sent it to a Yahoo address) and didn't have that problem at all. Are you using POP mail or are you just accessing via your browser?

  16. #16

  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by RandBlade View Post
    Browser
    And now you're seeing two "Accounts" in the accounts tab in Settings?

    Maybe check that new account and make sure the reply-to information is consistent?

  18. #18
    Senior Member Flixy's Avatar
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    I did send my emails from outlook, not the gmail website, that could be it.

    Btw, I think pop is only for incoming, not outgoing.

  19. #19
    I'm using gmail to send emails from both other gmail and hotmail accounts without issue, and without the "behalf" line. Appears Dread is managing it as well.
    While Flixy and Rand can't?

    Perhaps this is an EU law thing thats covering mail delivery protocols?



    EDIT:
    Or maybe you need to follow the correct directions?
    http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/0...s-without.html

  20. #20
    That option seems to require having an e-mail account with an actual SMTP server. Rand's address is just a forwarding alias (I think).

    Can't figure out why it seems to work for large numbers of people but not others. From the blog post:

    We recognize that your other address might not have a server that you can use to send outbound messages — for example, if you use a forwarding alias rather than an actual mailbox, or if your other email provider doesn't support authenticated SMTP, or restricts access to specific IP ranges. For this reason, we've kept the original method as well. Check out our Help Center for further details on these two "send mail as" configuration options.
    Which points to this: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/a...n&answer=22370

    Which contains this bit-

    Your Gmail address will still be included in your email header's sender field, to help prevent your mail from being marked as spam. Most email clients don't display the sender field, though some versions of Microsoft Outlook may display "From yourusername@gmail.com on behalf of customaddress@mydomain.com." For this reason, if you don't want 'on behalf of' to appear in any of your messages, we recommend using the SMTP servers of your other email provider.
    Sounds like an Outlook lameness. When I check the header of my test e-mails, Gmail's header just displays "Sent from: gmail.com". Can't even get Yahoo to display that header info.

  21. #21
    Yes just an alias.
    We recognize that your other address might not have a server that you can use to send outbound messages — for example, if you use a forwarding alias rather than an actual mailbox, or if your other email provider doesn't support authenticated SMTP, or restricts access to specific IP ranges. For this reason, we've kept the original method as well. Check out our Help Center for further details on these two "send mail as" configuration options
    Sounds like I'm out of luck.

    Would have been clever to put that in the directions, which it wasn't OG, rather than just a blog post last July.

  22. #22
    Senior Member Flixy's Avatar
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    Just check if your ISP offers an smtp server, they probably do.

  23. #23
    As I and others said, use your ISP's smtp server, they usually allow any from-address as long as your i.p. is in their i.p. range.
    "Wer Visionen hat, sollte zum Arzt gehen." - Helmut Schmidt

  24. #24
    If I'm using a 3G wireless dongle from Orange or my work's WiFi from BT, then that probably won't fall under Sky's IP range.

  25. #25
    Senior Member Flixy's Avatar
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    Yeah but they often also allow to mail outside their IP, but then you need a username/password. Check the 'use authentication when connecting to my outgoing mailserver' or something similar, and fill in your credentials there. That's how I do it now.
    Keep on keepin' the beat alive!

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