Mail Exchange (MX) records are DNS records that are necessary for delivering email to your address.
An MX record is used to tell the world which mail servers accept incoming mail for your domain and where emails sent to your domain should be routed. Assigning multiple MX records is a fail-safe measure you can use in the event your default mail server is down. If your MX records do not point to the correct location you will not receive email.
Mail Assure's MX records are signed with DNSSEC.
To route incoming email for your domain through the Mail Assure filter you need to update the MX records in your domain provider's DNS settings.
The default MX records are listed in the Default MX host names section in the General > Settings page accessible from the Admin Level Control Panel, see the full documentation for information on Managing Server Settings.
You can check whether your domains have the correct MX Records configured using the MX Verification Tool.
Update Your MX Records in Your Domain Provider's DNS Settings
- In your domain provider's DNS control panel add the appropriate MX records:
- Remove the original MX records
- Check, using the Log Search, that the message has passed through the Mail Assure filtering nodes
- mx1.mtaroutes.com (priority 10)
- mx2.mtaroutes.com (priority 20)
- mx3.mtaroutes.com (priority 30)
- mx4.mtaroutes.com (priority 40)
MX records consist of two parts: the domain name and the priority: the lowest number is the highest priority and is the first one attempted for delivery. Be sure to include the priority when adding the MX records
You must make sure you remove old MX records so that all emails are filtered through the Mail Assure cloud. Spammers actively try different MX records (such as the highest numbered priority) to bypass spam filters.
DNS changes can take some time to propagate to DNS resolvers world-wide, meaning email may continue to deliver directly to the previous MX records without filtering for some time, depending on the TTL value for the MX records
Global MX Records (Recommended)
For redundancy reasons we recommend using our global records. Our up-time and service level guarantees do not apply to the EU/US-only records:
Region-Specific MX Records
However, where there is a requirement to route data through a specific geographic territory, the below region-specific MX records may be used:
| Region | Priority | TTL (recommended) | Region | Priority | TTL (recommended) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| European Union (EU) | United States (US) | |||||
| mx1-eu.mtaroutes.com | 10 | 300 | mx1-us.mtaroutes.com | 10 | 300 | |
| mx2-eu.mtaroutes.com | 20 | 300 | mx2-us.mtaroutes.com | 20 | 300 | |
| mx3-eu.mtaroutes.com | 30 | 300 | mx3-us.mtaroutes.com | 30 | 300 | |
| mx4-eu.mtaroutes.com | 40 | 300 | mx4-us.mtaroutes.com | 40 | 300 | |
| United Kingdom (UK) | Australia (AU) | |||||
| mx1-uk.mtaroutes.com | 10 | 300 | mx1-au.mtaroutes.com | 10 | 300 | |
| mx2-uk.mtaroutes.com | 20 | 300 | mx2-au.mtaroutes.com | 20 | 300 | |
| mx3-uk.mtaroutes.com | 30 | 300 | mx3-au.mtaroutes.com | 30 | 300 | |
| mx4-uk.mtaroutes.com | 40 | 300 | mx4-au.mtaroutes.com | 40 | 300 | |
| Canada (CA) Region | South Africa (ZA) Region | |||||
| mx1-ca.mtaroutes.com | 10 | 300 | mx1-za.mtaroutes.com | 10 | 300 | |
| mx2-ca.mtaroutes.com | 20 | 300 | mx2-za.mtaroutes.com | 20 | 300 | |
| mx3-ca.mtaroutes.com | 30 | 300 | mx3-za.mtaroutes.com | 30 | 300 | |
| mx4-ca.mtaroutes.com | 40 | 300 | mx4-za.mtaroutes.com | 40 | 300 |
If you want to know about Branded MX records, please refer Branding Management.