Overview
The following explains what MX records are and how they work at DreamHost.
MX records
Mail Exchange (MX) records are DNS records that are necessary for delivering email to your address. They do this by pointing incoming mail to your domain's mail servers.
If your MX records are pointing to the wrong location, you will not receive email.
Example of an MX record
MX records consist of two parts: the priority and the domain name. For example:
0 mail.example.com
- The 0 is the priority. (The lower the number means a higher priority.)
- The mail.example.com is the mail server to which it connects. (This is different depending on what company is hosting your email.)
Where are my domain's MX records controlled?
Your MX records are controlled at the company where your nameservers are pointing.
If the nameservers are pointing to DreamHost
DreamHost hosts your email service. You can make any DNS changes (including custom MX records) in your DreamHost panel.
If you'd like to host your email at another company, you can either create custom MX records or configure a Google Workspace account.
If the nameservers are NOT pointing to DreamHost
Another company hosts your email service. You can confirm which company by looking up your MX records using an online tool.
If you need to make any changes to your DNS (or point MX records to DreamHost), you must log into the company where your domain's nameservers are pointing and update the records there. See this article to locate the DreamHost DNS records you will need to point to.
Changing your MX records only points where new email is sent and does not migrate old email to the new email hosting company. View the backing up email article for instructions on how to back up your old emails first.