How do I create an MX record?

What is an MX record?

MX records define the name of the Mail eXchange (MX) and to establish order of delivery. These records set the location of the server (or host) that all electronic mail is to be processed by. MX records must only be pointed to a hostname, and not to an IP - the IP address is always resolved by the A record of the host.

Priority

In many cases, in order to provide an uninterrupted email service, many zone records contain more than one MX record. Each contains its own entry, and each is given a priority. The lower the number, the higher the priority. If one of these MX fails for any reason, the next listed prioritised MX record will process the email.

MX records used for our email hosting services:

In this example email for yourdomainname.com.au is delivered first by mx3.partnerconsole.net, because this has a higher priority.

Changing MX records

Cloud Hosting customers

To point your domain name to your own email exchange server, (which must have a static IP address):

1. Login to your Account level console 
2. Manage the domain you want to make changes to
3. Click Zone Manager in the left column (Note: If this option is not displayed, please contact our Technical Support. The Zone Manager page details the domain zone records and allows for changes to A, CNAME, MX, NS, TXT or SRV records)
4. Create an A record hostname defining the MX IP address (e.g. mail)
5. Select MX in the drop down menu and click 'Create New Record' button
6. In the following page, type:

7. Click [Add Record]
8. Create additional MX records as required

Note: Standard DNS propagation time of up to 2 hours may apply.

cPanel Hosting customers

There are two steps to achieving this.

Firstly, point your domain name to your own email exchange server, (which must have a static IP address):

1. Login to your Account level console
2. Manage the domain you want to make changes to
3. Click cPanel Login
4. Click Advanced Zone Editor
5. Click Manage
6. Click the + Add Record drop-down menu to select your desired record
7. Name - This is what will be entered prior to the domain e.g mail.domain.com
8. TTL - Time To Live
9. Priority - This is how you determine the priority of the record e.g if you have 2 MX records, the primary MX record should have the lower number to gain priority. An MX record with a priority of 10 would have higher priority over a record which had a priority of 20
10. Destination - This is the name of the server. Please note that this must be a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN).

Note: Standard DNS propagation time of up to 2 hours may apply.