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The mkiv Supra Owners Club

Changes to MX records help please


Chris Wilson

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I host 3 different domains with a company called Gradwell Communications, whilst my broadband ISP service is with Zen Internet. Gradwell have been losing / bouncing e-mails to me for three weeks so after umpteen attempts by them to resolve this I asked Zen to set up a Hosting package. They did this and I have succeeded, God knows how given my total lack of IT knowledge, in setting up FTP to each of the three domains. I also set up for mail to all 3 domains to go to my Zen e-mail address. However Zen say I need to either change "MX" records myself or ask Gradwell to do this, to point to Zen's server. Gradwell are now not responding to my e-mails, so I looked at doing it myself, expecting a single MX record, whatever that may be, but in the Gradwell Control Panel I see there are quite a lot. Can anyone tell me what I need to change, delete or make inoperative so no mail goes through Gradwell's server, but goes straight to Zen's please? This is what Zen say in the blurb when I set up the hosting package. As I paid for a years hosting with Gradwell the domains remain there for now (I think...).

 

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For help with using the domain tools please follow our tutorial - http://www.zensupport.co.uk/knowledgebase/article.aspx?id=10790

3) Pointing a domain held with another host?

 

a) Instruct your ISP to point your domain's web and email records to 82.71.204.31.

 

b) If adding aliases follow our tutorial - http://support.zen.co.uk/kb/KnowledgebaseArticle.aspx?articleid=11196

 

Please note that for domains held with other hosting companies, e-mail will not be virus scanned.

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Attached is a screen shot of the complicated looking Gradwell stuff in my Control panel there. If you think i should leave it alone and wait for Gradwell to communicate and get them to do it please say so! ;) Thanks!

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You can edit all the records.

 

Some are "catch all" emails records. Eg just forwards them all on to your server and your server excepts or rejects them.

 

If your worried Chris, I can change them for you.

 

 

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I think I'm more confused Ibby, sorry. They didn't mention changing anything other then the "MX" records. Frustrating as I am still losing mail until they change this, but I suspect they've taken the huff and will make things awkward. Thanks for the help and offer, let me ponder a bit.... :)

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The mx records are basically a pointer to a host name. / A postcode.

 

This postcode is deciphered via the a record.

 

So if you imagine my server.

 

When it goes to email you it has to resolve your email address. It does that by looking up the postcode.

 

The mx record is a pointer.

 

I know it can. Be difficult to.understand. ☺️

 

 

 

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On that gradwell DNS control panel, just delete all the records that have a type of MX and create one for your email domain that points to the mail server at zen. If they told you this is mail.zen.co.uk or similar then use that name.

 

If they only gave you an IP, you need to make an A record for that IP first.

 

e.g.

 

A mail.chriswilson.tv 82.71.204.31

 

MX 10 mail.chriswilson.tv

 

This tells anyone sending you email to direct it to "mail.chriswilson.tv" and that the "mail.chriswilson.tv" is at the 82.71.204.31 address.

 

Maybe you should look into getting Zen to take on your domain and DNS as well?

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On that gradwell DNS control panel, just delete all the records that have a type of MX and create one for your email domain that points to the mail server at zen. If they told you this is mail.zen.co.uk or similar then use that name.

 

If they only gave you an IP, you need to make an A record for that IP first.

 

e.g.

 

A mail.chriswilson.tv 82.71.204.31

 

MX 10 mail.chriswilson.tv

 

This tells anyone sending you email to direct it to "mail.chriswilson.tv" and that the "mail.chriswilson.tv" is at the 82.71.204.31 address.

 

Maybe you should look into getting Zen to take on your domain and DNS as well?

 

:yeahthat: :thumbs:

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Basically your DNS (name resolution) is still being done by Gradwell, but you are moving the email function to Zen, any email that is sent the first thing that happens is a DNS query for the domains MX record (gradwell), the response tells the sending mailer where the domains mail server is located, in this case its now going to be Zen.

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Not quite, but definitely i would rather be timing up a gear driven quad cam V10 than fiddling with this @&%# :)

 

I had a fiddle with newbury-house.com last night, but I took a screen shot of all the settings first. After I had changed the MX records to point to the IP numerical address Zen sent I ran MX Toolbox on it and it came up with a load of errors and warnings, so I panicked and set it all back, triple checking for typos etcetera. I then ran the tool box again and it still has errors, mainly DNS.

 

So I ran the tool box on gatesgarth.com and chriswilson.tv and similar errors were show, and i haven't touched ANY settings for those at all.... Could something be wrong at their end and be the reason i started down this path to stop mail to me going missing? Is there any chance one of you IT guys could run this and see what you make of the errors please? Thanks (bigly). ;)

 

 

Do I need to change the CNAME entry?

 

My new Zen package allows one web site, and I want it on chriswilson.tv but it is not in existence as yet, so where do i find the "things" to change for web / ftp and which do i change? Zen says use the same numerical IP address for mail and web.

 

 

I'd have moved everything to Zen but they said I might as well let the hosting with Gradwell run until renewal next January. I had doubts about this and wish I had just gotten rid of Gradwell altogether now. They were great for 18 plus years, but something's changed there recently and some "What do you think of.....?" sites have gone from 5 star +++ to a load of obscenities :)

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Remember any DNS changes "can" take 24 hours to show, usually with UK hosting and domains it's done pretty quickly, like a few minutes or an hour.

 

So you might be changing them but not seeing any luck as your internet providers DNS hasnt seen the change yet.

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Remember any DNS changes "can" take 24 hours to show, usually with UK hosting and domains it's done pretty quickly, like a few minutes or an hour.

 

So you might be changing them but not seeing any luck as your internet providers DNS hasnt seen the change yet.

 

:yeahthat: DNS propagation can take a while.

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Should I change the DNS addresses to point to Zen ones ns0.zen.co.uk and ns1.zen.co.uk as well? All A records to the numeric IP address Zen sent me?

 

Why are there so many MX and A records, do I need them all? I want ALL mail sent to newbury-house , gatesgarth or chriswilson.tv to come to chtiswilson.tv and i will filter in my mail app.

 

 

Thanks.

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NS1 and NS2 are name servers and should not be put in the DNS Zone, they should be entered as the nameservers on the control panel for your domain ideally. Although configuration could differ between suppliers.

 

With my Digital ocean boxes i just set the nameserver on the domain control panel then i can manage DNS from their control panel rather than the domains which is a lot smoother.

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Does this look OK? If I try and send mail to myself at any of the three host names it says DNS won't resolve, but I did try and switch DNS to Zen's DNS servers, but that caused all the control panel entries for MX, A and CNAME entries to disappear so i switched it back....

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You can edit all the records.

 

Some are "catch all" emails records. Eg just forwards them all on to your server and your server excepts or rejects them.

 

If your worried Chris, I can change them for you.

 

/QUOTE]

 

I wonder if I can take you up on that kind offer please Ibby??? I will send a PM too.

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BIG thank you to Ibby for helping me with setting up the MX and A records, he spent quite a bit of time and loads of PM's getting my mail back up and running and it seems he's succeeded, thank you Ibby!!

Not a problem. Always here to help forum members.

 

Next time you change some settings - ask me 😋

 

 

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