On 4 April 2016 at 16:56, Peter Karunyu via skunkworks <skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke> wrote:

Hey guys,
I have a question on how to setup email service...

I have a domain (assume example.com) registered via one of our local shared hosting providers. I also have a hosting package with that provider.

The website attached to example.com is running off a server on DigitalOcean. This is working fine.

However, since I dont want to host my own mail server, how can I set my emails to be handled by the local provider?

Here are more pertinent details:

- At my request, the local provider has set the names servers to DO name servers
- I cant set a CNAME record on DO to point to the IP address given by the local provider, DO is refusing, therefore, I cant point mail.example.com to the IP provided by the local provider.

Can someone point me in the correct direction I should be taking?

For e-mail, you do NOT need to set a CNAME record, but an MX record. While at it, someone also needs to setup a PTR record for the IP originating the e-mails.

When mail is being delivered to example.com, MX record lookup is done. When mail.example.com is snding out e-mail, most service providers will check the PTR record for spam fighting purposes...

Question is: Can you point MX records to wherever you want? If you can, then you are home and dry.

Best regards,
Odhiambo WASHINGTON,
Nairobi,KE
+254 7 3200 0004/+254 7 2274 3223
"Oh, the cruft."