Email redirects

[#1]

Sorry to resurrect what has clearly been a recurrent question, but I just want to be sure...

I am trying to make a "soft" move of my wife's email from a Force9 address to GMail, without immediately disabling incoming mail to the f9 address.  I initially thought I could just do a redirect ("send all incoming mail for this mailbox across to gmail"), but after first trying this, getting an error and then reading the many posts in this forum, I understand that I can't do that because I can't use her existing address to set up the redirect.  I have successfully created a new, different (dummy) email address with a redirect to her gmail account and this tests OK.

I am therefore inclined to proceed as follows:

1. export all current mail to an Outlook .pst file to preserve it
2. delete the mailbox bearing her existing f9 address
3. create a new redirect using the now deleted email address, sending all incoming mail for it to her gmail address
4. after a protracted period of notifying all those who now use her f9 address of the intended change, close down the f9 mailbox.

Is this a sound plan?  Is there a better way?  Given recent issues with Plusnet email and the intention to offload it to another provider, I can't see a compelling case for trying to maintain the link with the f9 service.

[#2]

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@iainmackay wrote:

I have successfully created a new, different (dummy) email address with a redirect to her gmail account and this tests OK.

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Hi Iain,

From where did you send the test email?  In principle your strategy is sound, however NOT to a Gmail account, given their very draconian measures.  A test email from another of your Force9 mailboxes is NOT a sound test.

I started running some tests in this space and found unexpected issues; the forwarded emails will fail SPF verification and thereby have a high chance of rejected by Gmail and other providers.  You will probably end up in a worse state than the current transient issues seen over recent days.  Personally I would sit very tight ... jumping ships in a storm has a high risk of you ending up in the sea, not the other boat.

This specific issue is on my escalation list.

[#3]

Thanks @Townman .  I sent the test email to the newly created redirect address ([our cat's name]@[our username].f9.co.uk, which redirects to [wife's username]@gmail.com.  That worked. 

I probably need a bit more explanation of the "draconian measures" attributed to GMail.  I could, as an alternative, give my wife a mailbox within my personal domain hosted by Fasthosts (email on livemail.co.uk - presumably another "arm's-length" arrangement...), although the domain name will mean nothing to any of her friends and associates (it relates to my now defunct band).  Examining the DNS records for that domain, I see one reference to SPF but cannot recall any of the detail about that;  it reads "v=spf1 mx a include:_spf.livemail.co.uk ~all".  This was set up long enough ago for me to have erased all the trivial knowledge I had about it at the time 😄.

I do take seriously your advice about not jumping ship.  I've been with PlusNet for many years and the basics have generally worked, but the gradual erosion of technical support services leaves me wondering if my loyalty is being taken advantage of.  To be honest, I probably wouldn't completely change broadband supplier anyway, as all available options where I live end up being delivered by Openreach (and still over copper for the final leg).  Since changing my own email service to Fasthosts in June 2019 I cannot recall ever having had a problem.

[#4]

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@iainmackay wrote:

Thanks @Townman .  I sent the test email to the newly created redirect address ([our cat's name]@[our username].f9.co.uk, which redirects to [wife's username]@gmail.com.  That worked. 

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What you did is one thing, from where you sent the email is though crucial.  If it was sent from [you]@[yourusername].f9.co.uk then that was not a fair representative test of redirection to wife@gmail.com

Email redirection of SPF just do not mix well without additional measures.  It is imperative that the remote service correctly processes SPF verification; without SRS there is a high risk that such will fail.  Where there is redirection unless processed correctly, the redirection recipient will see the email sent by who ever as being sent by the Plusnet SMTP service (of which ever brand) which is not a legitimate relay for the original sender.

Thereby in attempting to do what you propose now, exchanges one pot of issues for a different pot of issues, indeed one which is more intractable.

"I can't see a compelling case for trying to maintain the link with the f9 service" -  the current issues, as inconvenient as they might be are only transient.  Personally I would sit it out and avoid even more issues.

What remains a trouble for you?

[#5]

In response to "What you did is one thing, from where you sent the email is though crucial. If it was sent from [you]@[yourusername].f9.co.uk then that was not a fair representative test of redirection to wife@gmail.com... "
My test was sent from my account on Fasthosts (mail server address ending in livemail.co.uk), from email address using my domain name, not hosted on f9. The SMTP server is smtp.livemail.co.uk.

[#6]

That is a fair representative test.

It would be investing to inspect the email  routing / verification headers in Gmail.  If you look at the original source in Gmail search for failure reports.  You might get away with SPF failures.