{"id":1860,"date":"2021-05-20T16:39:25","date_gmt":"2021-05-20T13:39:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scalahosting.com\/kb\/?p=1860"},"modified":"2023-06-14T09:43:56","modified_gmt":"2023-06-14T06:43:56","slug":"using-email-with-domains-hosted-elsewhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scalahosting.com\/kb\/using-email-with-domains-hosted-elsewhere\/","title":{"rendered":"Using email with domains hosted elsewhere"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

You could<\/span> route your emails<\/b> through our mail server even with your domain hosted elsewhere. It only requires <\/span>buying a hosting plan<\/b> and pointing your MX records to our mail server.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Companies relying heavily on emails for businesses might <\/span>use two or more mail servers <\/b>from different providers to ensure a server failure or downtime doesn\u2019t prevent them from <\/span>receiving essential communication.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They could use <\/span>MX records<\/b> to default to a second server when the primary server fails. Some might want to balance the email loads between servers to <\/span>ensure the primary server doesn’t get overwhelmed<\/b> and default to a third server when the servers fail. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article guides you on<\/span> using email with domains hosted elsewhere,<\/b> but before we get to this, we first need to get a better understanding of some of the basic principles behind email delivery.
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What\u2019s MX Record?<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

MX record, short for mail exchanger record, is a <\/span>DNS record<\/b><\/a> that directs an email to a mail server. Pointing the record to your mail provider ensures you receive emails.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The records <\/span>specify and prioritize the incoming mail servers <\/b>that receive the email messages people send to your business email account. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suppose you <\/span>host your website with ScalaHosting<\/b> but have your email handled by another provider. Your domain will be pointed to our nameservers, but the <\/span>MX record will redirect email communication <\/b>to the server handling your mails.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, you could even use the two servers.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Understanding the MX Records Priority<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

MX priority value <\/span>indicates your server preference.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With two servers, you have redundancy and can minimize the risk of email loss<\/span>. It’s up to the MX records to assign priority values to them and configure the order the<\/span> servers receive your email message.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You could use any number as the priority value. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The <\/span>outgoing mail <\/b>(SMTP) servers treat the record with the lowest number as the primary server and only delivers to the server with a higher priority value when the primary server fails, hence acting as a<\/span> backup mail server.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, if you use \u201c10\u201d as <\/span>mail1.example.com<\/b> MX record\u2019s priority value and \u201c20\u201d for <\/span>mail2.example.com<\/b>, SMTP servers try <\/span>mail1<\/span><\/i> first to deliver your emails before defaulting to <\/span>mail2<\/span><\/i> when it fails.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if you assign the value \u201c10\u201d to the two MX records and \u201c20\u201d to a third server, the <\/span>email provider balances the load between<\/b> mail1<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>mail2<\/span><\/i> to avoid overwhelming the servers and defaults to <\/span>mail3<\/span><\/i> when the servers fail.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

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This MX configuration balances the load but <\/span>doesn\u2019t specify any backup server,<\/b> and you could lose your emails if the two servers fail. If you have a third server, assigning a higher priority value (like 20) specifies it as the backup.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your emails default to that server when the \u2018balancing\u2019 servers fail. These<\/span> fail-safe measures ensure you don\u2019t lose important messages. <\/b>The backup server receives your emails until the primary server(s) are back online.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Querying an MX Record<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Message Transfer Agents <\/b>(MTA) is a program for transporting, delivering, and forwarding mails, and you could liken it to an SMTP server. It queries your MX records to help you receive your email messages. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s quickly examine how it works querying MX records? <\/span><\/i>When people <\/span>send you email messages,<\/b> the MTA sends a DNS query to find the incoming mail servers that\u2019ll receive the messages to<\/span> establish an SMTP connection to those servers.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It tries to connect first to the most prioritized server (the domain with the lowest priority value). <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the <\/span>primary server fails to handle the requests<\/b>, the MTA defaults to the backup server, if specified, and reverts to the primary server when it comes back online. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if there\u2019s no backup server, email sending fails whenever the <\/span>primary server goes down.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adding MX Record to Your DNS Record<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Follow these steps to <\/span>add an MX record to your domain\u2019s DNS zone.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Open your browser and l<\/span>og into <\/span>SPanel’s User Interface<\/b><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

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Scroll down the dashboard till you get to the <\/span>DOMAINS<\/b> section. Click the <\/span>DNS editor<\/b> tool to add an MX record to the domain.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

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Select the domain you want to edit from the<\/span> drop-domain menu.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n

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Scroll to the<\/span> ADD A NEW RECORD<\/b> section and input your MX records information.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

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After that you need to :<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n