Leverage our powerful MX lookup tool to retrieve “mail exchange” record details of any domain in real-time. Our MX record checker is reliable, intuitive, and free.
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We thoroughly understand the issues webmasters, especially email administrators, face now and then. This is why we have featured an advanced MX checker which takes no time to fetch mail exchange records associated with a domain. It helps to verify MX records, ensuring a smooth and reliable email routing for a domain.
MX record lookup becomes hassle-free with our user-friendly mail exchange record checker. Here’s how you can check MX records with the help of our tool, even without having any technical expertise:
The first step requires highlighting the domain name (website URL) whose DNS MX record you wish to check.
Click on the drop-down menu to specify the DNS server against which you want to verify the MX record. You can choose between the following:
Once everything is in order, click “Check MX Record” and wait a second. Our MX record test tool lookup the MX record and will provide information about the entered domain's email servers and their corresponding IPs. From the IP, you can individually check each IP in anti-spam databases using an IP blacklist checker, enabling you with 50+ anti-spam databases to check whether the given IP is on the blacklist.
MX records define the mail servers responsible for handling incoming emails for a domain (where your domain's emails should be routed per the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol).
Incorrect or outdated MX records can commonly cause email delivery failures and other related issues. This is why using our tool and regularly checking mail exchange records is crucial.
Here’s how our MX record checker can help while dealing with web email communication:
Email Delivery - When you email someone at a specific domain, your email server uses the MX records to determine where to route the email. Verifying the MX records ensures emails are sent to the correct mail servers.
Migration and Changes - MX records lookup becomes crucial while migrating email services or changing email configurations. This ensures that email traffic is directed to the new mail servers and that all changes are propagated throughout the DNS system.
Email Configuration - Checking mail exchange records helps to validate and troubleshoot email server configurations. This is sometimes important to ensure that a domain's mail servers are correctly set up and readily reachable on the internet.
DNS Health - The MX records are essential to any domain’s DNS records. A domain with incorrect or missing MX records may face email delivery issues. It also highlights whether there are any potential DNS misconfigurations or not.
Spam Prevention - Valid MX records are essential for preventing email spoofing and spam. Many spam filters validate MX records as part of their authentication process to determine the legitimacy of incoming emails. Check it to configure it properly.
Fallback and Redundancy - MX records with different priority levels enable fallback and redundancy in email delivery. It is essential to check MX records so that varying priority levels can be specified to ensure timely email delivery.
If you have questions about the MX record, here’s everything you need to know. You’ll find quick answers to address all your needs and problems.
When an individual sends an email to an address in a specific domain (e.g., [email protected]), the sending mail server queries the DNS system for the MX records of the respective domain (example.com). This is because a domain’s MX records contain information about the mail servers responsible for accepting incoming emails on its behalf. The sending mail server then routes the email to the appropriate mail server based on the priority and IP address specified in the MX records.
Invalid and incorrectly configured MX records prevent emails from being delivered to the appropriate mail servers. So, if you are a webmaster or email administrator, you will not be able to receive emails if your MX records are not properly configured or missing. Check your domain’s mail exchange records to avoid such unwanted issues.
You can use our MX lookup tool to verify the configuration of a domain's mail servers, check the mail server's priority, troubleshoot email delivery issues, and ensure your domain's email is correctly set up.
Yes. DNSChecker.org ensures that its MX checker provides real-time data. It retrieves the most up-to-date MX records from the DNS servers responsible for the respective domains. However, please note that DNS records can change, so the accuracy of the results is subject to the domain's DNS configuration at the time of the query.
Yes—our MX checker is entirely free to use. There are no hidden charges or limitations on the number of domains you enter to check their mail exchange records.
While our tool helps identify incorrect or missing MX records, it may not comprehensively analyze all email delivery issues. Some problems might be related to the domain's mail server settings, firewalls, or other email-related configurations.
Usually, the company providing you with the nameservers facility controls your MX records. In that case, your DNS records can be managed in their control panel.
Yes. A domain can have multiple MX records. This is because the multiple MX records with different priorities allow for redundancy and load balancing. When sending mail, the sending mail server attempts to deliver the email to the mail server with the lowest priority (highest priority value). If the respective server is unavailable, it can try the next mail server with the next priority value, and so on, until it successfully delivers the email or runs out of MX records to try.
MX preference is the same as MX priority. The MX records consist of a priority value and the domain name of the mail server. The priority value indicates the order in which the sending mail server should attempt to deliver the email to the mail servers. A lower priority number indicates a higher priority.
For instance, an example of an MX record
10 mail.example.com20 backup.mail.example.comHere the mail server "mail.example.com" has a higher priority (lower value 10) than "backup.mail.example.com” (higher value 20). This indicates that the email will be sent first to "mail.example.com" if available. If that server is not responsive, the sending mail server will try "backup.mail.example.com."
As discussed earlier, in MX records, the number represents the priority. When sending the email, the email servers check the MX records of that email domain. If the record is present, the servers send it to the mail server with a lower value because the lower value is preferred first. If it fails to send an email to the first mailing server, it will go to the second one. The backup MX record is just another MX record of the mail server with a higher value.
It depends upon your MX records' TTL (Time to Live) value. However, if you talk about the DNS propagation checks globally, it will take 24 to 48 hours to propagate the MX records globally. Also, check MX records through multiple DNS servers worldwide with the WhatsMyDNS tool.
No. MX records don’t point directly to an IP address. MX records point to a domain name with an associated A (IPv4 Address) or AAAA (IPv6 Address) record. This ensures that mail servers can correctly identify the destination to deliver the email messages.
The MX record contains the hostname that handles the email for the specific domain. Therefore, these are supposed to point to the hostname rather than the IP. The MX record cannot be an IP address because the mail server will not accept it if it is an IP address. Where the CNAME records typically indicate the A record or AAAA record for that specific domain. Moreover, according to the RFC (Request for Change) documents, pointing to a CNAME alias is forbidden and invalid.
For example, you have a domain example.com and want to manage its emails on mail.example.com. You need A record for mail.example.com and its corresponding MX record.
example.com A xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
mail.example.com A xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
example.com MX mail.example.com
but pointing the MX record to CNAME is forbidden and invalid.
example.com A xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
mail.example.com CNAME example.com
example.com MX mail.example.com
That is invalid and will cause the problem.
