I need the proper email DNS settings

Website, Application, Performance Getting Started
1

I have read. I have researched. I have experimented.
my email simply does not work.

You would think, the more you relied on DNS only, the better off you would be.
For a shared hosting web site on bluehost, just simple folk we are, are these DNS settings correct?
A mail numbers DNS only
CNAME pop mail.me.com DNS only
CNAME smtp mail.me.com DNS only
CNAME webmail me.com DNS only
MX me.com mail.me.com DNS only

“me” is in place of our actual domain.
This shouldn’t be this difficult.

2

If you post the actual domain, we can give it a look.

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3

That would have been a smart thing to do.

I have it mostly figured out. Our spf1 address wasn’t correct, and we also have a bad DKIM code that I am waiting for bluehost on.
It’s the CNAME’s that throw me. I know mail goes to DNS only, but webmail throws me, and ftp … ?
Thank you for your help.

4

webmail can be proxied :orange: because it’s an HTTP connection (web page).

Right now, it looks like MX is pointing to a proxied :orange: hostname. Probably ‘mail’ because a lookup of that hostname shows it’s proxied.

FTP should be :grey:, but I prefer to delete it. For file transfers, I connect directly to the server IP address.

Here’s the long version:

5

I am glad you mentioned that about ftp - I go through the server as well.

Okay. Thank you for that!

Have a good day!

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6

I hope I can continue this.
Bluehost insists that MX records have host: @ and the SPF has a host value: @
I have tried several times to change them, but they always revert back to newsgateny.com

Is there a difference on your end?

7

They also want, "for DKIM
host value : default._domainkey.newsgateny.com "

That also reverts back to what must be your default.

Any thoughts?

8

Okay, even the video link you sent me states that the MX records be set to @
but as stated, after several tries and deleting and writing a new file, MX reverts to newsgateny.com

And, I discovered I can do this: @sdayman

9

Hi @sicarri,

@ is just shorthand for your root domain newsgateny.com, and Cloudflare displays the full domain.

With this value, you enter it and Cloudflare will strip the domain to display it, so you will see default._domainkey, but it’s the same record.

Your MX record still seems to point to an :orange: DNS record, as @sdayman said before.

1 Like
10

Okay, I finally sat down with the video.
I fixed the ‘A’ mail record to DNS only.
Email is quasi working now, email links to the phone app.
On https://www.whatsmydns.net/ however, I get red 'X’s for CNAM and MX.

I will guess I just have to wait for those?

Thank you for your patience. I took over a crippled website hosted at bluehost,
and am dealing with both that and Cloudflare at the same time.

11

It all looks OK to me, your MX record now points correctly to an unproxied hostname. Are you still having issues with receiving mail, or is it working OK now?

12

  1. Mail from hotmail to the domain arrives - AND I have a forwarder on domain to send whatever it gets to hotmail.

  2. That arrived back to hotmail correctly.

  3. Mail from the domain to gmail arrive and also forwards to hotmail correctly.

  4. Mail directly to hotmail does not arrive, no error message. It may show up in junk after 2.5 hours.
    I have a complaint sent in to hotmail.

But, I still have all reed 'x’s for MX and CNAME at https://www.whatsmydns.net/

13

Give this test a try. It’s pretty good about testing domain email validity.

As for those DNS records, they look good. Some hosts will show a red X, but if it’s just one or two, that’s somewhat normal for some resolvers to be unresponsive.

Screen Shot 2020-07-18 at 6.32.57 AM
Screen Shot 2020-07-18 at 6.32.57 AM982×876 103 KB

Screen Shot 2020-07-18 at 6.32.42 AM
Screen Shot 2020-07-18 at 6.32.42 AM964×612 72.3 KB

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14

You DKIM record, while propagated and apparently correct, seems to have a space character that needs removing. You can check using this tool: Dig (DNS lookup)

image
image991×565 16.2 KB

15

It probably doesn’t need the " " part in the middle, either. That’s probably an artifact from cPanel, or wherever the host displays the code.

16

email test gave me a 9.5.
I fixed the space in the DKIM record.
Email from domain to hotmail now at least going to junk.

I think you and I are done, finally. I will see if I can improve the 9.5 score.

Thank you! Get yourself an extra scoop of gelato this eve!
:slight_smile:

3 Likes
17

If you want to step it up even more, give this a try:

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18

Yes, I already see, I need one of those.
That could be the very thing that hotmail wants.

Thank you! :slight_smile:

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19

My DKIM record on Cloudflare doesn’t have the "s but they show up when checking at Dig (DNS lookup), so these are either added by CF to conform to some technicality, or perhaps by Google’s DIG interface.

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20

There were no quote marks on my end.

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