Mail Exchange (MX) records are DNS records that are used by mail servers to determine where to deliver email. The sending mail server will look up the MX record in DNS.
An MX (Mail Exchange) Lookup is a DNS (Domain Name System) query used to find information about the mail servers responsible for receiving email messages for a specific domain.
An MX Lookup involves several steps:
When you send an email, your email client or server needs to know where to deliver it. It starts by looking up the DNS records for the recipient's domain.
To find the email servers, the DNS query specifically looks for MX (Mail Exchange) records associated with the recipient's domain. MX records are like signposts that point to the servers responsible for handling incoming emails.
MX records also include a priority value (a number), which indicates the order in which email servers should be used if there are multiple MX records. Lower numbers have higher priority. Email servers will attempt to deliver the email to the server with the lowest priority value first. If that server is unavailable, they move on to the next highest priority server.
Once the MX records have been retrieved, the email client or server obtains the IP addresses associated with the mail servers listed in those MX records. This step allows it to establish a connection with one of these servers to deliver the email.
Finally, the email client or server connects to one of the mail servers listed in the MX records and delivers the email message. If the first server is unavailable, it tries the next one in the priority order until successful delivery or until all servers have been exhausted.
In summary, an MX Lookup is a crucial step in the email delivery process, helping email clients and servers determine the correct destination for sending emails. MX records provide not only the server's address but also a priority scheme to ensure reliable email delivery even in the presence of multiple mail servers for a domain.