MX Records - UK Web Hosting | Dedicated Server Windows and Linux VPS Forum

**DavidAllen** · #1 (**permalink**) 16-08-2007, 17:05

I've recently taken over the hosting of a website for a customer. He also has another domain hosted elsewhere which has it's MX records pointing to the website I've created. Or rather it would if I knew what the MX rexcords for this other domain should say. Anyone know?
Thanks
David

**esnail** · #2 (**permalink**) 16-08-2007, 19:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidAllen

I've recently taken over the hosting of a website for a customer. He also has another domain hosted elsewhere which has it's MX records pointing to the website I've created. Or rather it would if I knew what the MX rexcords for this other domain should say. Anyone know?
Thanks
David

possibly mail.'hisdomain'.com and a value of 10?

**eUKhost.com** · #3 (**permalink**) 16-08-2007, 23:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidAllen

I've recently taken over the hosting of a website for a customer. He also has another domain hosted elsewhere which has it's MX records pointing to the website I've created. Or rather it would if I knew what the MX rexcords for this other domain should say. Anyone know?
Thanks
David

You cannot point one domains MX records to other domain. Just consider what would happen if you had jason@firstdomain.com and you expect it to go to jason@seconddomain.com ?

This wont be possible.

You need to setup account for mail.firstdomain.com on your server and provide him with the IP of server. He will need to point A records of mail.firstdomain.com to your servers IP and his MX records should point to main.firstdomain.com

You will need to create all necessary mailboxes for firstdomain.com on your server.

firstdomain.com is one that you don't host.
seconddomain.com is one that you host.

**DavidAllen** · #4 (**permalink**) 17-08-2007, 10:34

Thanks for the reply Mark
Think I see why it won't work. So ... perhaps if I explain the problem we can find a better solution
My customer has several domains - most of which I'm taking over - no problem
He has one website which is currently hosted by someone else. For this website he wants to have the http side of things to stay where they are and just the email side of things to live with me.
So ... Plan B
I create this website (hissite1) on euk. The nameservers for the domain stay the same (pointing to other hosting company) and I get them to alter the MX records to point to euk
Does that work?

**eUK-Martin** · #5 (**permalink**) 17-08-2007, 10:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidAllen

I create this website (hissite1) on euk. The nameservers for the domain stay the same (pointing to other hosting company) and I get them to alter the MX records to point to euk
Does that work?

Yes this will work for sure, I will make it a little simpler:

Situation:
The domain is hosted somewhere with emails and http. You just want emails to be transferred to eukhost and not the http.

Here is what that is required:
1. Add the domain name on the eukhost server.
2. Ask the client to change the 'A' record of mail.'domain'.com to <eukhost_ip> in the DNS so that mail.'domain'.com points to eukhost.
3. Change the MX record in the DNS of the domain at old host to mail.'domain'.com

Now all the emails will be forwarded to the eukhost server. Make sure that you have all the email addresses created on eukhost server or they will bounce back.

**DavidAllen** · #6 (**permalink**) 17-08-2007, 11:12

Martin you are a star - thank you
Just one more question

When I spoke to the other hosts they were talking of a secondary MX record - do I need one?

**eUKhost.com** · #7 (**permalink**) 17-08-2007, 11:13

Martin has explained it very well. Even we have similar setting as our helpdesk and mail service is hosted on a seaprate server while our main website is on a different server.

We have pointed mail.eukhost.com to our helpdesk server.

**eUK-Martin** · #8 (**permalink**) 17-08-2007, 11:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidAllen

Martin you are a star - thank you

It was my pleasure

Quote:

Just one more question

When I spoke to the other hosts they were talking of a secondary MX record - do I need one?

Well its depends on your need, for example: let the domain in question be martin.com.

You have changed mail.martin.com to point eukhost but you still wish to have mails working in case eukhost mails are down then you need a secondary MX record that is mail2.martin.com.

You just have you ADD an entry in the DNS, just below the main MX record to make it look like:

Code:

martin.com.  IN     MX    0     mail.martin.com
martin.com.  IN     MX    10   mail2.martin.com

In the above example mail.martin.com in primary mail server because it has priority set to '0' and mail2.martin.com is secondary mail server as the priority for it is set to 10. Mail will only route to mail2.martin.com if mail.martin.com does not respond in time and you can have multiple more of them with priority 20 30 40 etc.

Just make sure that your subdomain mail2.martin.com points to the correct 'A' record to point to the correct mail server. Also that mail server should hold an email account for your domain.

**DavidAllen** · #9 (**permalink**) 17-08-2007, 11:40

Thanks Martin - very well explained all round.