Which servers take your mail, in the order they are tried.
MX records name the servers that receive email for a domain. The lookup lists them by priority, names the provider behind them, and reads the three sending records in the same pass to say whether the address can be forged.
Checking
Reading your domain
Your result
The record is on this page. Publishing it is yours to do, or ours.
Copy the record shown above and follow the numbered steps further down. Most domains take one sitting at the DNS host.
Go to the stepsWe publish SPF, DKIM and DMARC for the domain and verify each one once it is live. Report reading, the later move to reject and support after that are separate work.
Ask us in writingYou receive the scope and the price in writing before any record is touched.
Three results mean trouble; anything else is fine.
Most domains list one to five servers from a single provider, and that is healthy.
No MX at all
The domain receives no email. Fine for a domain that never should; a problem if customers write to it.
A server you do not recognise
Find out who runs it before changing anything. It may be a filtering service you pay for.
The old provider still listed
Left behind after a move, it can take a share of your incoming mail.
Anything else
Several servers from one provider, in priority order, is a normal and healthy result.
Every receiving server, and the sending side too.
MX answers where mail for the domain goes. Whether someone can send as the domain is a separate question, so the same read covers SPF, DKIM and DMARC.
Every MX record
Each server listed for the domain, shown exactly as published.
Their priority
The number beside each one. Lower is tried first; only the order matters.
Who runs your mail
The provider, named from the server hostnames.
No MX at all
Said clearly, with what it means for a domain that ought to receive mail.
SPF
Who may send as the domain.
DKIM
Whether its mail is signed.
DMARC
Whether a forgery is refused, filed as spam or delivered.
The verdict
One sentence covering incoming mail and the forgery question together.
If there is no MX, publish your provider’s hostnames.
MX records are live infrastructure. Change them only when you know which provider should receive your mail, and never to tidy up.
Confirm the provider
Find out which company runs your email: the one you pay for the mailboxes.
Find their MX values
Their help pages list the exact hostnames and priorities for your plan.
Open your DNS host
Sign in where the domain is managed and open the DNS records page.
Add each MX record
One record per hostname, with the priority the provider gives. Never invent a hostname.
Leave unknown records alone
Do not delete an MX you do not recognise until you know who runs it.
Look it up again
Run the domain through this page; the servers should appear in the right order.
The order: look it up, recognise who runs it, leave MX alone if it works, and fix the sending side.
Rather not edit DNS yourself? We publish SPF, DKIM and DMARC for the domain and verify them, with the scope and the price in writing first. Ask us in writing.
Incoming and outgoing are separate problems.
MX decides where mail to you arrives. SPF, DKIM and DMARC decide whether mail from you is trusted. “Our mail goes to spam” and “someone is sending as us” are not MX problems, and changing MX will not fix them.
MX
Where email for the domain is delivered.
SPF
Which servers may send as the domain.
DKIM
Whether its outgoing mail is signed.
DMARC
What happens to a message that fails.
A domain can receive mail perfectly and still be forged. When we checked our own fourteen domains, eleven had no policy on the sending side.
A website move can send your mail somewhere nobody reads.
When a new web host republishes DNS, it sometimes points MX at its own mail service.
The silent redirect
Customers’ messages start arriving in a mailbox on the web host that nobody opens. Nothing bounces, so nobody knows.
The check that finds it
After any website or DNS change, look the domain up here. The hostnames show at once whether mail still goes to your provider.
The forwarding address for your domain’s mail.
An MX record tells sending servers where to deliver mail for your domain. Several records are normal; they stand in for each other.
Priority
The number beside each server. Lower is tried first; 10, 20 and 30 work the same as 1, 2 and 3.
Several records
Normal. When the first server does not answer, the next one is tried.
No MX after a website move
Usually the new host rebuilt DNS without them. Restore your provider’s values.
Forgeable with correct MX
MX says nothing about who may send. That is the work of SPF, DKIM and DMARC.
Four rules the checker keeps.
The lookup only looks. Every change is one you make, at your own DNS host, when it suits you.
Always: public DNS, and nothing else
Every answer comes from records any mail server can look up. Nothing is sent to the domain and nothing about it is kept.
Always: the record as published, and a command to check it
Each line shows the raw text we read, with a dig command that returns the same answer on your own machine.
Never: your mailbox, your password or your DNS login
The check needs a domain name and nothing more. No test message is sent to or from the domain.
Never: a strict SPF record we cannot verify
Senders we cannot see from outside would be refused by it. When a record cannot be read, the result says unread, never missing.
Before you look up a domain.
Send any other question in writing; a written answer follows within one business day.
What does the number beside each server mean?
It is the priority. Sending servers try the lowest number first and move to the next if it does not answer. Only the order matters; 10, 20, 30 behaves the same as 1, 2, 3.
Our mail lands in spam. Will changing MX fix it?
No. MX only decides where mail to you arrives. Whether your own mail lands in spam depends on SPF, DKIM and DMARC, which this lookup reads in the same pass.
Can we remove an MX record nobody here recognises?
Not until you know who runs it. It may be a filtering or backup service you pay for, and removing it can drop part of your incoming mail. Ask your mail provider which hostnames belong on the list first.
Check another domain.
Look up a domain after a website move, or a supplier’s before you rely on their address. The servers come back in about a second.