Google mail exchange

A Google Mail Exchange (MX) record is a type of DNS (Domain Name System) record that specifies the mail server responsible for accepting email messages on behalf of a domain. In other words, it's a record that tells the world where to send email messages intended for a particular domain.

Here's a breakdown of what MX records do:

1. Mail Server: An MX record points to a mail server (also known as a mail exchanger) that is responsible for receiving and processing email messages for a domain.
2. Priority: Each MX record has a priority value, which determines the order in which mail servers are tried when sending an email message. The lower the priority value, the more preferred the mail server is.
3. Mail Server IP: The MX record specifies the IP address of the mail server that should be used to send email messages.

When you set up a Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) account, you need to configure MX records to route email traffic to Google's mail servers. Here's how it works:

1. You create a Google Workspace account and set up your domain to use Google's mail services.
2. Google provides you with a set of MX records that you need to add to your domain's DNS settings.
3. The MX records point to Google's mail servers, which are responsible for receiving and processing email messages for your domain.
4. When someone sends an email message to your domain, their email client or server looks up the MX records for your domain and sends the message to the mail server specified in the MX record with the lowest priority value.

By setting up MX records correctly, you ensure that email messages intended for your domain are delivered to Google's mail servers, where they can be processed and delivered to your users' inboxes.

Here's an example of what a Google MX record might look like:

MX pri target 10 mx.google.com 20 alt1.google.com 30 alt2.google.com

In this example, the MX record has three entries:

• 10 is the priority value, which indicates that mx.google.com is the preferred mail server.
• mx.google.com is the target mail server, which is responsible for receiving email messages for the domain.
• alt1.google.com and alt2.google.com are alternative mail servers that can be used if the primary mail server is unavailable.

By setting up MX records correctly, you can ensure that your domain's email traffic is routed to Google's mail servers, and your users can receive email messages intended for your domain.