MX Record a bit of confusion

Hi everybody, Happy Holidays.

Note: DNS newbie (but otherwise an experienced programmer).

I've got a quick one that should be for easy you all to answer. I'm using a custon DNS service with a domain name registrar (pairnic.com, I like 'em).

I am running my own server (Apache for web and Postfix for mail) out of my home. I use an ISP other then pairnic to handle my DSL connectivity.

My question is this: do I actually need to configure an MX record if I an not doing anything fancy with mail? The only not-standard thing I've done regarding mail is add a few aliases to the Postfix alias file.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers,
Douglass Turner

The zone of your domain needs an MX record if you wish to RECEIVE messages destined for xxx@yourdomain.com.

freebsd,

Thanks for clearing that up.

Now, because I am using an ISP for my DSL connectivity who is not my domain name registrar, do I need to involve the ISP's mail server in any way? What I'm getting at is I need to use the ISP's mail server as a relay host for outgoing mail from my server and I didn't know if there were issues for incoming as well.

-Douglass

Only if you need to. For example, if a domain refuses mail from your server or it's not refused but never makes it to it's destination.

Once again, whoever hosting your DNS, tell them to add an MX record if you wish to RECEIVE messages destined for xxx@yourdomain.com.
Any other involvements such as your ISP, sending mails, DSL connectivity or whatever are irrelevant. That's why I didn't brought them up (since they are unrelated) to confuse you and readers.

Just to do a sanity check here is an echo of my DNS record for the domain in question (theimageengine.com)

Does this look correct:


www /root# dig -t ANY theimageengine.com

; <<>> DiG 9.2.2 <<>> -t ANY theimageengine.com
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 58153
;; flags: qr aa rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 5, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;theimageengine.com. IN ANY

;; ANSWER SECTION:
theimageengine.com. 604800 IN A 217.151.176.194
theimageengine.com. 604800 IN SOA . root.pair.com. 2003122930 3600 300 604800 3600
theimageengine.com. 604800 IN NS NS1.PAIRNIC.com.
theimageengine.com. 604800 IN NS NS2.PAIRNIC.com.
theimageengine.com. 604800 IN MX 0 theimageengine.com.

;; Query time: 129 msec
;; SERVER: 209.68.2.190#53(209.68.2.190)
;; WHEN: Mon Dec 29 15:20:30 2003
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 157

Yes, just that it's not FQDN as host.domain.com format.
If you have futher questions not related to MX record, start a new thread.