Question

Email Configuration Difficulties

Posted June 25, 2013 7.1k views
I have the DNS of my site (davelukas.net) pointed to Digital Ocean via Name.com. But my email is not working. Is there a way to have my site hosted by Digital Ocean and my email server run through my “traditional” hosting company (Site5.com)? If so, how would I do this? I should add that I don’t use Google Apps for my email. I’d like to get all email addresses from ___@davelukas.net to be accessible on my phone, Thunderbird, etc.
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7 answers
esparza.dan June 25, 2013
Absolutely. But you'll need to work with Site5.com to get the MX records you need to add to your DNS information to use the Site5 mail servers.
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dave149144 June 25, 2013
To make sure I understand you Dan:

- I'd grab my MX records off Site5 (which is "davelukas.net.", with a priority of 10)
- Input that info as a MX record on Digital Ocean

And that's it?
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kamaln7 June 26, 2013
Since you'll be switching the A record of davelukas.net to your DigitalOcean droplet (and off Site5), you have to create a new record that points to your Site5 IP:

mail.davelukas.net. A your.old.site5.ip
davelukas.net. MX 10 mail (OR: davelukas.net. MX 10 mail.davelukas.net.)
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  • Okidoki September 14, 2014

    Hi, do you add these new records to the DNS of DO droplet or Name.com?

    And if you add it to DO droplet, would it conflict with the current DNS in DO, like such?

    @ A 11.111.111.11 (the current DNS for the site to work in DO)
mail.davelukas.net A 22.222.222.22 (old site ip)

    Would having 2 simultaneous A records be a problem, no?

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  • kamaln7 September 14, 2014

    It depends on what your domain’s nameservers are set to. If they are set to ns1-3.digitalocean.com, you need to use DO’s control panel.

    Having multiple A records shouldn’t be a problem, as long as they are of different names. So, the new A record needs to be called “mail” so that your main website doesn’t conflict with it and because the MX records points to the DNS record that is called “mail”.

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dave149144 June 26, 2013
I'm now able to send emails from Thunderbird and my phone from two of my emails on davelukas.net, but I can't receive any emails.

For the MX records, I put in "mail.davelukas.net." with a priority of 10. Did you mean for me to put two entries in for MX?

Thanks for your help Kamal, I'm one step closer to the solution.
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kamaln7 June 26, 2013
@dave It's possible that your new DNS config has no propagated across all dns resolvers - your MX setup is correct. I recommend waiting a few hours and then see if you receive emails.
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dave149144 June 26, 2013
@Kamal Yep, we're good! When I added the A record earlier today, it was almost instantaneous, so I assumed the MX would be the same.

But now I'm able to send and receive emails. Thank you so much for the help!
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kamaln7 June 26, 2013
Awesome! Really glad to hear that, @dave! :D
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