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Jonathan
Asked: 2010-09-06 09:27:48 +0800 CST

How to connect domain to just webmail on a VPS? (domain is already in use at another location)

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here is my current setup of my domain name:

Record Type Record Host Record Answer TTL Priority Create Date
A   *.domain.com    8.6.19.68 300                2010-09-01 17:21:13
CNAME   domain.com  domain.ning.com 300     2010-09-03 11:54:00
CNAME   www.domain.com  domain.ning.com 300     2010-09-01 17:21:23

As you can see i already have my domain connecting to a social network on ning.com and i need to keep it there. This approach with CNAME is the only way Ning.com allow. However i still want the emails to be at the Webmail on my VPS (because ning doesnt offer webmail). Is this possible? If so, how? What do i need to add?

Thanks for your time

domain-name-system webmail

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    You do not need to do anything else:

    1. The mail server for your domain is specified by the MX record, which you have not listed in the question. [Edit: If you have no MX record, your domain's mail will be delivered to the address specified in the A record for domain.com.] As long as you have an MX record for domain.com and you do not change it, your mail delivery will not be affected.
    2. Because they are separate from your MX records, the CNAME records pointing to domain.ning.com will not change where your mail is delivered.
    3. Of course, if there is an address that you normally use to retreive your mail (e.g. webmail.domain.com), you will need to make sure that this address continues to resolve to its original location.
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  2. You will need to log into the control panel at your registrar (the people you paid to create domain.com) and set up MX records. The MX records tell the rest of the world that your webmail provider is the correct destination for inbound e-mail for your host/domain.

    You may also want/need to set up a new A or CNAME record such as "webmail.domain.com" so that it's easy for you and your users to connect to the webmail service.

    It's a little unusual for a VPS provider to offer webmail service - are you sure they have agreed to do this for you? If so, they should have given you explicit directions about how to configure your DNS records; the contents of the records are specific to the webmail provider and aren't something you can be reasonably expected to know on your own.

    For comparison, here are some instructions for setting up Google Apps webmail.

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