What is MX Record and how to point them to different domains

What is MX Record? MX Record is a relatively new concept for network administrators. Here, Vietnamese Hosting will answer what MX Record is and guide to point MX to Mail. Information technology is becoming more and more developed around the world. There are thousands of participating computers on the Internet. Each machine has its own address, so how can people manage and remember them. The following article will show you that by understanding what the term MX Record is.

What is the definition of MX Record and related concepts

1. What is MX Record?

MX Record stands for Mail Exchanger Record which is defined as a record in DNS zone used to locate Mail Server for a Domain.
A domain name can be assigned by multiple MX records, this prevents your emails from losing data if it is down for a while.

Example: When you send Email to whitemail@example.com, Mail Server determines which Mail Server MX Record example.com is controlled by (such as mail.example.com), then looks at A Record to go to the destination IP. In addition, MX Record automatically records a value in addition to the Mail Exchange domain name a number for reference. This number has a 16-bit unsigned integer value. That is understood as the order of priority among the Mail Exchanger.

The MX record must be used in conjunction with the A record. The A record should point to the mail server(s). When another mail server wants to communicate with your mail server, it looks for the MX record. That MX record should point to an A record that points to the mail server's IP address.
MX record pointing to message One record

If an MX record is missing for the domain, then messages for the domain will usually be attempted to the matching A record. So for domain your name is yourdomain.com, if there is no MX record for your name yourdomain.com then mail will be sent to “apex/root” record yourdomain.com.

Convert MX . records

MX Records do not support DNS Failover, however, they do have a type of failover service built in. You will notice that when you create an MX record, you have the option to set the MX Level for the record. The MX level determines the order (mail server) in which your messages will be sent.

The mail server with the lowest MX level is first attempted to send the email. So if you have three MX records with levels 10, 20, 30, the following will happen:

Messages will always be tried first to be delivered to an MX record with an MX Level of 10.

If the mail server is down, then the mail will try to be delivered to the mail server at 20.

If the mail server at level 20 is down, the mail will be sent to the mail server at level 30.

If the mail servers at level 20 and 30 are backup mail servers, then the mail will be delivered to the mail servers at level 10 when it comes back online.

If you have multiple MX records with the same MX level it will set up a circular robin configuration for your email.

The email sending server will not send email to both email servers.

2. Related definitions

DNS

DNS stands for Domain Name System called domain name resolution system. DNS was invented in 1984, DNS is a system that allows users to set up a domain name and IP address corresponding to it.

DNS is named in order for the resources participating in the Internet (could be computers, services, ..). DNS helps to associate rich information by the domain name assigned to the user. At its most basic, DNS helps convert domain names that are meaningful to humans into identifiers. As a result, they link resources participating in the Internet for the purpose of locating and addressing those resources around the world.

Domain Name

Internet address, abbreviated as IP, we are currently using IPv4. IPv4 addresses have 32 bits and are divided into 4 octets (8 bits/1 octet and equal to 1 byte). We count from left to right from bit 1 to bit 32, each octet is separated by a dot "." and is expressed as a full decimal number of 12 digits.

Example of IP address: 115.79.213.111. In the future, the IP address used can be up to IPv6 with 128 bits (4 times more than current IPv4).

Because each IP address has a name with a sequence of numbers, it is difficult for users to remember such a long address. Therefore, people have come up with a more meaningful name and help users easily remember. People call that domain name, the term used here is Domain Name. The essence of the domain name is the name of the network and the name of the server on the Internet.

Instructions on how to point the MX Record of a domain name What is MX Record?

Changing your MX record is usually done to redirect email to a remote server. It can also be used as a temporary backup in case the local mail server goes down.

1. Point MX Record to another domain

Step 1: Login to your Cpanel.

Step 2: Click on the MX Entry icon.

Step 3: Select the problematic domain from the drop-down list.

Step 4: Click “Automatically Detect Configuration” then click Change button.

Step 5: Under “Add new record”, enter mail.thedomainname.com (or whatever you provided by the server) for the Destination value. Priority will usually be 0 [không].

Step 6: Click the “Add New Record” button.

Tip: Resetting the value is also easy. Just save the Destination value as the domain name of your choice from the dropdown (no http or www).

2. Pointing MX Record to another server using the same domain name

Step 1: Login to Cpanel where your DNS is hosted.

Note: If HostGator is not your DNS server, you will need to contact your DNS server for assistance updating the MX records. You will need the IP address from your welcome email.

Step 2: Click on the MX Entry icon.

Step 3: Select the problematic domain from the drop-down list.

Step 4: Select “Automatically Detect Configuration” and click “Change” button.

Step 5: Under “Add New Record”, enter mail.thedomainname.com (or whatever you provided by the server) for the Destination value. Priority will usually be 0 [không].

Step 6: Click the “Add New Record” button.

Step 7: Go to CPanel Home page and click on Simple DNS Editor icon.

Step 8: Select the same domain name from the drop-down menu.

Step 9: Under “Add An A Record”, enter mail.thedomainname.com (or whatever you set for the MX Destination) in the “Name” field.

Step 10: In the “Address” field, enter the IP address of the other server.

Note: If you're pointing your domain name to HostGator, you'll be using the IP address of the server where you want to receive emails, available in your welcome email for that server.

Step 11: Click the “Add A Record” button.

Step 12: Finish.

How to create MX Record with Vietnamese and international domain names What is MX Record?

1. Create MX Record for Vietnamese domain names:

Step 1: Access the address then enter the registered email and password to Vinahost

Step 2: Look at the Menu bar on the left, click "Account Management", select "Domain information".

Step 3: Select the domain name, then select the “Manage domains” next to it.

Step 4: Select “Management Tools” > “Manage MX Records”. Fill in the information as directed below:
- Prority: is the priority of mail processing. The higher the priority, the lower the priority of mail processing and vice versa.
- Destination: is the name and address of the server that will process the mail, but this is not an IP address.

So it's done.

2. Create MX Record for international domain names:

Step 1: Access the address then enter the registered email and password to Vinahost

Step 2: Look at the Menu bar on the left, click "Account Management", select "Domain information".

Step 3: Select the domain name, then select the “Manage domains” next to it.

Step 4: Select “Management Tools” > “Manage DNS”
- Enter hostname: @
- Enter Record Name: Mail
- Enter the address: The name of the address has a record A
- Enter Priority, Destination: As above.

Information technology knowledge is often quite abstract and difficult to understand. However, in the new age, we cannot ignore it. Especially for those of you who are passionate about and pursue information technology, the above information will surely be useful. Hopefully the above shared knowledge will help you understand more about MX Record as well as how to point MX Record to Mail, create MX Record in DNS.