Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Domain Names : MX record preference values?

[avocado]

Hi --

I'm moving some DNS records between nameservers, and while the MX preference values on the old nameserver were all multiples of 10 (10, 20, 30, etc), the web interface for the new nameserver only allows multiples of 25 (0, 25, 50, etc). Am I right in assuming that the actual values don't mean anything, only the order?

Thanks!

[tiggee]

That is correct.
Only the order of the records matter (unless there is some proprietary code that checks the exact MX level).

[avocado]

Originally posted by tiggee
unless there is some proprietary code that checks the exact MX level

Oh, yuck. Sounds like it's time to contact the client's email provider.

Thanks for the help!

[Stan Marsh]

Originally posted by tiggee

Only the order of the records matter

You not correct here. For MX records the only thing that matters is preference. The lower the code (0 - the lowest), the higher is preference. SMTP server, when trying to send mail, will seek MX record for your domain with the lowest code (i.e. highest priority). Only if it doesn't answer, it will call the next one, then the next, etc. If the priorities of few MX records are the same, it really doesn't matter for SMTP server to which one of them to send the mail.

[error404]

Sure he's correct, you're just misunderstanding what he's saying . You just repeated it .

The preference matters, but the actual number does not, only its relationship to the other existing MX records. If you sort by preference, only the order matters, not the actual preference number.