Using email with domains hosted elsewhere

You could route your emails through our mail server even with your domain hosted elsewhere. It only requires buying a hosting plan and pointing your MX records to our mail server.

Companies relying heavily on emails for businesses might use two or more mail servers from different providers to ensure a server failure or downtime doesn’t prevent them from receiving essential communication.

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

This article guides you on using email with domains hosted elsewhere, but before we get to this, we first need to get a better understanding of some of the basic principles behind email delivery.

What’s MX Record?

MX record, short for mail exchanger record, is a DNS record that directs an email to a mail server. Pointing the record to your mail provider ensures you receive emails.

The records specify and prioritize the incoming mail servers that receive the email messages people send to your business email account. 

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

And, you could even use the two servers.

Understanding the MX Records Priority

MX priority value indicates your server preference.

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

You could use any number as the priority value. 

The outgoing mail (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 backup mail server.

For instance, if you use “10” as mail1.example.com MX record’s priority value and “20” for mail2.example.com, SMTP servers try mail1 first to deliver your emails before defaulting to mail2 when it fails.

But if you assign the value “10” to the two MX records and “20” to a third server, the email provider balances the load between mail1 and mail2 to avoid overwhelming the servers and defaults to mail3 when the servers fail.

Using email with domains hosted elsewhere

This MX configuration balances the load but doesn’t specify any backup server, 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.

Your emails default to that server when the ‘balancing’ servers fail. These fail-safe measures ensure you don’t lose important messages. The backup server receives your emails until the primary server(s) are back online.

Querying an MX Record

Message Transfer Agents (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. 

Let’s quickly examine how it works querying MX records? When people send you email messages, the MTA sends a DNS query to find the incoming mail servers that’ll receive the messages to establish an SMTP connection to those servers.

It tries to connect first to the most prioritized server (the domain with the lowest priority value). 

If the primary server fails to handle the requests, the MTA defaults to the backup server, if specified, and reverts to the primary server when it comes back online. 

But if there’s no backup server, email sending fails whenever the primary server goes down.

Adding MX Record to Your DNS Record

Follow these steps to add an MX record to your domain’s DNS zone.

Open your browser and log into SPanel’s User Interface.

Using email with domains hosted elsewhere

Scroll down the dashboard till you get to the DOMAINS section. Click the DNS editor tool to add an MX record to the domain.

Using email with domains hosted elsewhere

Select the domain you want to edit from the drop-domain menu.

Using email with domains hosted elsewhere

Scroll to the ADD A NEW RECORD section and input your MX records information.

Using email with domains hosted elsewhere

After that you need to :

  • Enter your domain name (for instance, domain.com) in the Name field.
  • Leave the default value in the TTL text box.
  • Select MX as the DNS Type.
  • Enter a value in the Priority text box.
  • Type your mail server address in the Value text box. Use a Fully Qualified Domain Name like mail.domain.com instead of an IP address.

Click Add Record to add the MX configuration to your DNS records. 

Repeat the steps to add another MX record for other mail servers. Use the same priority value to specify a ‘balancing’ server (if you want to balance the email loads) or a higher value for a backup mail server.

Wait for about 48 hours for the records to propagate across the internet, and you could use a free DNS Checker to monitor the propagation.

Editing MX Records

To edit your MX records in SPanel, log into the User Interface and open the DNS editor.

Scroll down to the list of existing DNS records, locate the MX record you want to edit, and click the Edit button.

Using email with domains hosted elsewhere

Make your changes on the dialogue box, click Save to enable the changes, or use the Delete button to remove the record from your DNS.

Using email with domains hosted elsewhere

That’s it.

Wrapping It Up

You could prepare for mail server failures by configuring an MX record to point to a backup server, and this article makes adding MX records to your domain painless. 

Follow the steps to set up this configuration in your SPanel in a few minutes, and don’t hesitate to contact support when you need assistance.

You could host your email servers on ScalaHosting for top-level performance, security, and scalability.

Was this helpful?

What’s your goal today?

1. Find the right Managed VPS solution

If you’re looking for industry-leading speed, ease of use and reliability Try ScalaHosting with an unconditional money-back guarantee.

2. Make your website lighting fast

We guarantee to make your WordPress site load in less than 2 seconds on a managed VPS with ScalaHosting or give your money back. Fill out the form, and we’ll be in touch.

Please enter a valid name
Please enter a valid website
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

3. Streamline your clients’ hosting experience

If you’re a web studio or development agency hosting more than 30 websites, schedule a call with Vlad, our co-founder and CTO, and see how we can deliver unmatched value to both your business and your clients.

Photo

Need a custom cluster or professional advice?

Book a meeting and get a free 30-minute consultation with Vlad, co-founder & CTO of Scala Hosting, who will help you select, design and build the right solution - from a single data center cluster to a multi-region & multi-datacenter high availability cluster with hundreds of servers.

Book a free consultation

4. Learn how to grow your website in 2023

An all-star team of SEO and web influencers are sharing their secret knowledge for the first time in years. Learn about the future of SEO, Web Design best practices and the secrets to getting the foundation for your website to thrive. Watch the exclusive webinar.

An Exclusive Insiders Look Behind The SEO and Web Development Curtain

Rado
Author

Working in the web hosting industry for over 13 years, Rado has inevitably got some insight into the industry. A digital marketer by education, Rado is always putting himself in the client's shoes, trying to see what's best for THEM first. A man of the fine detail, you can often find him spending 10+ minutes wondering over a missing comma or slightly skewed design.