Can I host a website on digital ocean but leave email at the old hosting company?

August 25, 2016 2k views
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J0Y
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J0Y

I have a wordpress install up and running, but am in way over my head when it comes to getting email working...or anything else server-related for that matter.

Is it possible to point the domain at the new website, but leave email running though my old server? It's pair.

If anyone can point me toward a tutorial or something, I'd greatly appreciate it. I've had no luck googling. I'm guessing it involves changing MX records at the registrar, but I'm not sure what to change, or if email will work on the old server if the main domain is pointed elsewhere.

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2 Answers
sierracircle August 26, 2016

Yes, no problem. You just have to set your MX records at wherever your DNS for the domain is.

Without knowing any more about who your email provider is, it is impossible to say what those records are, but usually you can just Google (for example, if it is GoDaddy you have email with):

mx records for godaddy email

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J0Y August 26, 2016

OK, thanks. My site is currently hosted at pair, and my registrar is moniker. I found a tutorial, sort of...but I think they're referring to hosting the domain there but the email elsewhere, so I'm still a bit confused.
https://www.pair.com/support/kb/custom-dns-mx-records/

I found a tutorial at moniker that basically just says to add an MX record, which sounds too simple. But maybe I'm just making this more complicated than it is :)
https://wiki.moniker.com/index.php/Faq:mx-record

Would I update the DNS at the registrar (moniker) to point to the new site, then just add the one MX record for mail.mydomain.com, or would I use the SMTP info that's used for checking the mail (myname.mail.somethingicantremember.com) ?

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