Adding an MX Record
Last Updated: January 31, 2024
MX records is a DNS record only used for emails. It is the only email DNS record, and can be used in combination with other records.Unlike other DNS, you can create duplicates, pointed to different destinations for failsafe reasons. MX records typically do not have any Host values.
MX records should not resolve directly to an IP address, but instead an email server - provided by your email host. If you were provided an IP address for your mailserver, and no MX record, then we suggest you first create an A record using the IP address, and then you point the MX record to the A record - like this:
An example of an MX record pointing to an email server:
Note: If you wish to setup a DNS record with Name.com, it's important to note you need to use our nameservers - so name.com manage and host your DNS. Domains registered with Name.com use our nameservers by default but in order to point your domain to our nameservers, or verify they are correctly pointed, please see our guide for default name servers.
Once you are using name servers, follow the steps below:
- Log in to your Name.com account.
- Click on the MY DOMAINS button, located on the top right hand corner.
- Click on the domain name you wish to create an MX record for.
- Click Manage DNS Records, in the DNS column.
- Here you will add the desired MX record, provided by your host.
- Select MX from the Type drop-down menu.
- Leave the Host field blank, unless you were provided a value by your email host.
- Enter or copy+paste the mailserver domain into the Answer field.
- Leave TTL as 300 (default)
- Enter the provided Priority. The default is 10 if you have 1 record. If you have multiple you can use 10, 20, 30 and so on, in increments of 10.
- Click the Add Record button.
- Select MX from the Type drop-down menu.
Once the records are created, the domain should be working within 24 hours.