DNS Mail Servers, MX records

Mattitude · 15 Mar 2010 at 11:24

I have a rented mail server that i wish to close and move to my new server hosted on our local network.

Now i log in to the control panel of the rented server and go to the DNS to see 6 records, in there are two mx records i have the option to deactivate them.

Now if i setup the new server as a DNS with a mx record and mail service running then deactivate the mx records on the rented server this will be correct? as i am guessing you cant have two mx records?

Please bare with me as DNS is a bit of a new subject with me.

Stelly · 15 Mar 2010 at 12:50

What do your 2 mx records say??

Stelly

m4cc45 · 15 Mar 2010 at 13:02

You can have loads of MX records - the MX records are like having multiple DNS servers, they add redundancy. If you have 2 servers, for example, you could have 2 MX records one for the primary and if that goes offline go to the secondary.

Most ISP's can normally provide a 'store and forward' solution so if the server goes offline the e-mail gets cached and auto-forwarded when it's back online.

M.

ecksmen · 15 Mar 2010 at 13:19

Mattitude said:
I have a rented mail server that i wish to close and move to my new server hosted on our local network.

Now i log in to the control panel of the rented server and go to the DNS to see 6 records, in there are two mx records i have the option to deactivate them.

Now if i setup the new server as a DNS with a mx record and mail service running then deactivate the mx records on the rented server this will be correct? as i am guessing you cant have two mx records?

Please bare with me as DNS is a bit of a new subject with me.

The easiest way to do it will be to find out who hosts the records for you. It may well be in ISP who rented the server from. You may want to check with them if you disable your service with them as to what will happen with your DNS resolution.

http://www.kloth.net/services/nslookup.php

Do a look up on the above to find out who the SOA is, this is where you'll need to update MX.

You can do all clever things with weighting but I'd suggest you firstly establish where your records will live if you stop your current provider.