Email and domain hosting on separate servers: MX Record Troubles and Solution

Setting MX Records Correctly to have e-mail accounts and forwarding handled on one server while the domain name and web site are handled by other servers.

(First Step: Setting them at all)

You MUST create an MX record with the A record for the domain (usually straight domain: example.com) for which you need e-mail.

Once this was set correctly as described below it worked despite the 'unknown RCPT TO' error message in the DNS report.

I can log into and get e-mail from test@example.org (with password test), but new mail I send doesn't get there.

http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/mail.ch?domain=test@example.org

Now says:

Getting MX record for example.org (from local DNS server, may be cached)... Got it!

Host Preference IP(s) [Country]
mx.example.org. 10 324.234.34.23 [US]

Step 1: Try connecting to the following mailserver:
mx.example.org. - 324.234.34.23

Step 2: If still unsuccessful, queue the E-mail for later delivery.

Trying to connect to all mailservers:

mx.example.org. - 324.234.34.23 [Could not connect: Got an unknown RCPT TO response: 451 4.7.1 Please try again later
]

On our server, we're doing
example.org 10 mx.example.org

And having the subdomain mx.example.org point to

mx.example.org 324.234.34.23

Here's what's listed on their old server's GUI, attached.

Is " Always accept mail locally even if the primary mx does not point to this server. " relevant at all?

ben

P.S. In the midst of inexperience-caused disaster, it's worth
http://chapterthreellc.com/blog/matt/drupal_paradise

Stuff already fixed:

Thanks to:

http://member.dnsstuff.com/pages/dnsreport.php

Getting MX record for example.org (from local DNS server, may be cached)... There is no MX record for example.org! That's bad. Checking for an A record... Got it!
Host Preference IP(s) [Country]
example.org 0 234.123.123.12 [US]

Step 1: Try connecting to the following mailserver: example.org - 204.133.177.14 Step 2: If still unsuccessful, queue the E-mail for later delivery.

Trying to connect to all mailservers: example.org - 234.123.123.12 [Could not connect: Could not receive data: Operation timed out.] [Note that if your mailserver takes over 30 seconds to respond, our test will timeout, even though real mailservers will wait longer]

Back on our server, we have:

mx.example.org 324.234.34.23

(Which is the old server.)

But we also have:

MX Records: example.org

NO ASSOCIATED MX RECORDS

What am I doing wrong? What can I put here? Can I make an MX record that points example.org at an IP, the client's old server's IP?

Answer to IP address question, NO.

"The DNS Wizard is ready to create an MX Record for example.org sending mail requests to mx.example.org with a preference of 10. This means that mail sent to user@example.org will be routed to mx.example.org.