Working with Aliases in Exchange

Question

Hello!

Would anybody please tell me what's the purpose of aliases in Exchange?

I'm asking this question because this article, for example, says "An email alias is an email address that you can use to receive email without exposing your main, personal, or professional email address." but if I try to send a message to an alias instead of the primary smtp address (when they're different) Exchange says "~can't find the address"... ???

Regards,
Michael

Answer 1

Hi @Mikhail Firsov

We could refer to the introduction for this parameter Alias:

And you said but if I try to send a message to an alias instead of the primary smtp address (when they're different) Exchange says "~can't find the address"
You will need to check if alias@keyman .com is included in that user's email addresses, if you cannot find this, you will receive the NDR

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Answer 2

Oh, yes, it works - didn't get the term "resolve" at first, sorry :(

Answer 3

You would have to the alias to your mailbox to be valid.

If this is Exchange Online, you can use plus addressing

and then you would not have to add the alias to the mailbox:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/recipients-in-exchange-online/plus-addressing-in-exchange-online

Answer 4

Thank you all for your replies!

"We could refer to the introduction for this parameter Alias:" - I read that definition many times and decided to ask the question because of the defenition itself: it explains WHAT is alias and HOW it can be created but NOT FOR WHAT PURPOSE it is created!

For example, in Exchange Online an alias can be used as an additional address - much like in the same manner as "An email alias is an email address that you can use to receive email without exposing your main, personal, or professional email address." - and this does make sense.

Yes, we can also make use of alias by adding it as an additional smtp address ( "You will need to check if alias@keyman .com is included in that user's email addresses, if you cannot find this, you will receive the NDR") - but in this window we can designate ANY smtp address to be the secondary email address, NOT only the alias address so, put another way, I don't understand the purpose of alias in terms of "This value identifies the recipient as an email enabled object..." - as far as I understand it is the email address that "identifies the recipients as an email enabled object" - at least in situations when the alias is not the same as the default smtp address.

Answer 5

In the common usage of the word in email, alias means "Proxy Address", not the alias attribute in Exchange. The alias attribute is the mailnickname , but in most cases, no one cares about that :)

MailNickName ( alias) is an old Exchange thing. Each mailbox has one and you can send to that alias internally in Exchange and it will resolve. Outside of Exchange, external users send to the SMTP addresses, so if you want multiple proxy addresses for one mailbox, add more -. i.e. add more "aliases" :)