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iamjonesy
Asked: 2010-09-05 02:41:00 +0800 CST

how to find out where email is being hosted for a website

  • 772

Is there a whois equivalent to find out the hosting details for email?

email-server whois

5 Answers

  1. The MX record is part of the DNS record for a domain name; you can look at the record directly, or just use a website like MX toolbox: http://www.mxtoolbox.com/SuperTool.aspx?action=mx%3agmail.com

    This will direct you to the address of the mail server.

    However, this isn't always the actual mail server - in some environments this is actually the address of the spam filter, which forwards the messages to the actual mail server where they are stored.

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  2. look up the MX record in DNS.

    on windows: at cmd prompt:

    nslookup <enter>
set type=MX <enter>
hotmail.com <enter>
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  3. The host command will show you.

    $ host serverfault.com
serverfault.com has address 64.34.119.12
serverfault.com mail is handled by 50 aspmx3.googlemail.com.
serverfault.com mail is handled by 10 aspmx.l.google.com.
serverfault.com mail is handled by 20 alt1.aspmx.l.google.com.
serverfault.com mail is handled by 30 alt2.aspmx.l.google.com.
serverfault.com mail is handled by 40 aspmx2.googlemail.com.
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  4. You could also use dig: dig yourdomain.com mx

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  5. Here's a quick command to check the MX records of a domain;

    nslookup -q=mx email.startupschool.org
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