For organizations, acquiring an email associated with their domain name is a must. For example, support@leasepacket.com is more preferable to leasepacketsupport@gmail.com. Domain-based emails polish your company’s Image while leaving a positive impression on your clients. DNS MX (Domain Name System Mail Exchanger) records allow you to create and manage such email addresses. MX records act as pointers, ensuring your emails reach the intended recipients by guiding them to the correct mail server.
In this article we will tell you all about MX records. By the time you finish reading, you will understand what MX records are, how they work, why we need them, how to set up and use them, and their significance in seamless email delivery.
What Are MX Records?
These are mail exchange records, also known as MX records, are resource records or settings within the Domain Name System (DNS) that directs emails to a particular mail server that accepts email on behalf of a domain or users. You will be able to specify routing priorities inside of an MX record by utilizing preference values to determine which mail server will be used in the event that there are multiple servers.
What Is MX Priority?
Priorities for Mail Exchanger (MX) are referred to as integer value. The smallest number is favoured. If two MXs have the same number, other mail servers will randomly select one. It is suggested that a domain has at least two MXs.
The server with the least number has the highest priority. Therefore, an MX server with a value of 2 is more important than another with a value of 15. A “0” indicates the highest possible priority.
Example
Here, The server will always try mailhost1 first because 10 is lower than 20. In the result of a message send failure, the server will default to mailhost2.
The email service could also configure this MX record so that both servers have equal priority and receive an equal amount of mail.
How Do I Check My MX Record?
You can use an MX record lookup tool to find the MX records. Simply enter your domain name and you’ll see associated MX records, IP addresses, TTLs, and other relevant info. Some of the most common methods of checking your domain’s MX records are MXToolbox.com or Google’s G Suite Toolbox, allowing you to look up other types of DNS records (TXT, PTR, TLSA, CNAME records, etc.)
Keep in mind that these tools are based on the use of authoritative name servers to perform DNS lookups and retrieve MX record information. e.g. your domain uses custom or private name servers. In that case, you may need to provide additional information or configure your DNS settings to allow these tools to access your MX record information.
Regular review of your domain’s MX records and addressing potential issues affecting email delivery helps in maintaining an efficient and reliable email system for your domain. Some common problems include following:
Missing MX records
Email delivery may be disrupted if you have no MX records, as senders’ MTAs needs to know where to route messages.
Incorrect Mail Server Information
If your MX records point to the wrong mail server, email delivery may fail or be delayed.
Improper Priority
MX records having conflicting or confusing priority values may cause email delivery to be less efficient or less reliable due to misdirected messages or ineffective load balancing.
How do MX Records work?
MX records allows everyone to know which server your email should go to and where emails sent to your domain should be sent. If your MX records don’t work right, you won’t be able to get any email.
When an email is sent to example@companyname.com the following processing take place
- The sender’s server looks for the receiver’s Authoritative Nameservers.
- The sender’s server runs a query on nameservers of companyname.com to find its MX records.
- Then, a query is run on the MX records in the DNS. This locates the IP address for the mail exchanger to which the email will be delivered.
Multiple MX records can be added to a DNS for backup in case the primary server is not available due to some reason. Different ‘MX preference’ values can be set for each record. However, having multiple MX records does not mean that every MX will receive one copy of the email. The email will be delivered to the MX server that holds the lowest preference. The lowest preference value holds the highest priority. If the server with the lowest preference is unable to accept emails at a particular time, then the email will be delivered to the server with the next highest priority. You can look up your MX records to know your MX details such as the IP, priority etc. You can also lookup other DNS records using a DNS checker tool.
Why Do We Need MX Records?
MX records are used to point your domain name to the servers where your mail is handled. It is a resource record in the DNS that indicates where an email will be delivered in compliance with the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP).
Are MX Records Necessary?
MX records are essentially a standard part of email delivery. They are not required for a sender’s domain, but due to spam, receiving servers may reject emails from a domain without an MX record. In short, if you want to deliver emails successfully, you obviously need an MX record. MX records are also necessary for receiving emails through a separate domain from your web server and load balancing mail flow across multiple servers.
How Do I Set Up And Configure An Mx Record?
Email providers have built-in MX records for end users, so you don’t need to set anything up. But if you want to direct email from your web domain server to a separate email provider, you’ll need to change your MX record. This generally involves the following steps:
- Login to your domain server account.
- Remove existing MX records from your domain’s DNS management page.
- Add new MX records associated with a preferred mail server. These are designated by your mail server.
- Save the changes and verify the MX record
Conclusion
Ultimately, MX records are essential in ensuring smooth and efficient email routing and delivery. By accurately configuring MX records, you can optimize email server performance, create backups, and distribute incoming email traffic. Regularly checking and updating your domain’s MX records not only helps maintain a dependable email system but also contributes to a better overall communication experience. We hope this guide will definitely help you to understand all about important aspects of MX Records. If you have any doubts feel free to contact us. Lease Packet’s expert team is ready to help you 24/7.