Overview
The following describes how you can spoof your FROM address within various CMS applications.
Prerequisites
First, make sure that the administrator's email address is hosted at DreamHost. You can verify this by looking up the MX records using either of the following sites:
- whatsmydns.net — A popular site that checks DNS records around the world.
- Viewing your DreamHost DNS records — DreamHost's DNS propagation checker in the panel.
DreamHost MX records appear as follows:
-
Host Value @ 0 mx1.mailchannels.net. @ 0 mx2.mailchannels.net. mail 0 mx1.mailchannels.net. mail 0 mx2.mailchannels.net.
Once you've confirmed your email is hosted with DreamHost, you can proceed with spoofing the FROM address in a useful manner.
Spoofing within a CMS or web application
The following sections show you how to spoof an email address within various CMS and web applications.
WordPress
Some WordPress contact forms that are created by plugins or themes have settings that let you completely control how emails are sent. Contact Form 7 is an example. You can use the plugin settings in the WordPress admin panel to send emails out with the name of the site visitor and an email address of a site admin, webmaster, or anyone associated with running the site:
- From: [your-name] <admin@example.com>
You can also configure the Reply-To header so that replies to these emails will go directly to the site visitor:
- Reply-To: [your-name] <[your-email]>
There is a separate Configure SMTP plugin you can use to set the From information on all emails sent from WordPress, regardless of the plugin or theme that sends the email.
Additional WordPress information can be reviewed at WordPress troubleshooting contact forms. Please note, however, that not all plugins and themes allow you to control how emails are sent.
Drupal
The Contact Reply-To module changes Drupal's contact form to send from the website's email address. It also sets a reply-to header to the actual user, avoiding the restrictions discussed here.
Joomla
Joomla has a "Custom Reply" that sends emails with the site visitor's FROM address. You can turn that off in the Joomla dashboard configuration. Go to Components -> Contacts -> Options. On the Form tab, make sure the "Custom Reply" is set to NO.
You must set the "Custom Reply" to NO in order for Joomla to generate the email. Otherwise, the form might become non-functional.
For Joomla versions 3.1 or higher, you can access the SMTP authentication settings in the Joomla dashboard at Site -> Global Configuration -> Server tab -> Mail Settings.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce includes the option to change the sender from name and email address in the Settings -> Emails tab. This should be set to a DreamHost-hosted mail account.