[IMPORTANT]Can Someone Please Help Me Setting Up SMTP.

Question

Ok the following picture http://img102.imageshack.us/my.php?image=domainif6.jpg is from the website that has free MX, A, CNAME, NS records. And the parts that are painted over in black is my host name from my isp and it starts out as pool- but anyway the red is my ip. Im just seeing if that is setup correctly. And then how would I configure the smtp software and then make outlook work wiht the configured mx records?

Answer 1

Ok, first of all I'm not entirely clear on whether you want to host your own mail server locally, or whether you want to receive your emails for this domain through your ISP. I'll describe both.

1. Own SMTP server

I'm assuming that you have a fixed IP and that your ISP doesn't block incoming connections to port 25.

You have to set up your MX as follows:

domain.co.cc IN MX 5 hostname

hostname.co.cc IN A IP address

The MX record goes on the root of a domain, unless you want that people have to send mails to [e-mail].

In your case this could be

dns.co.cc IN MX 5 mail.dns.co.uk

mail.dns.co.uk IN A 1.2.3.4

You install server software. Microsoft Exchange is probably the best known server software, but you can find a long list here: http://www.download.com/3120-20_4.html?t...

You now have to open port 25 on your router and direct incoming traffic to the internal IP address of your mail server.

You will have to set up your mail client to collect the mail from your mail server, according to the configuration that you've set up on the server (POP3/IMAP, servername, username etc)

2. Via ISP

You have to point your MX record to your ISP's mail server:

domain.co.cc IN MX 5 servername.isp

No A record is needed as this is set up on the ISP's domain.

You have to add the domain or your ISP's mailbox. Some providers will allow you to do this automatically, some might require a change request, some might not allow it at all if the domain isn't registered through them. For this you'll have to contact your provider.

3. Mail forward

if neither case works out, then your DNS provider might allow you the possibility to create a static forward of email addresses on their servers. That way you can set up the domain on the DNS providers MX records, create individual email addresses on their site and forward them to existing email addresses.

If you have any other questions, feel free to send me a message through my profile page.