Overview
Mail Exchange (MX) records are DNS records that are necessary for delivering email to your address.
In simple DNS terms, an MX record is used to tell the world which mail servers accept incoming mail for your domain and where emails sent to your domain should be routed to. If your MX records are not pointed to the correct location, you will not receive email.
In addition to website hosting plans that include email, DreamHost also offers an email only hosting plan you can read about here:
Most DreamHost customers host their website and mail service at DreamHost. After an email address is added, all the required mail-related DNS records are created automatically.
You can also switch a domain's mail service between DreamHost, Google Workspace, or somewhere else entirely.
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.
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.
- Outgoing email servers connect to the MX servers in order of priority.
- If you use more than one MX record and both have the same priority, it picks one at random. (This in effect load balances the connections.)
Who controls my MX records?
Your MX records are controlled at the company where your nameservers are pointed. You can check this at whoisweb.dreamhost.com.
If your nameservers are pointing to DreamHost
If your domain is using DreamHost's nameservers then all DNS changes (including custom MX records) are made in your DreamHost panel.
If your nameservers are NOT pointing to DreamHost
If your domain is not using DreamHost's nameservers, all DNS changes (including custom MX records) must be done at the company that hosts your nameservers. If you want to use regular DreamHost-hosted mail service with a domain using non-DreamHost nameservers, you can set up custom mail DNS records at your outside DNS provider using the mail DNS information from your DreamHost panel. See the following article for details on how to find these records.
