(REPOSTING WITH CORRECT EMAIL ADDRESS THIS TIME) Pointing my email DNS…

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  cherylsloverlinett · Member · May 23, 2015 at 3:55 pm

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  My domain, http://www.LeadFeather.org, was registered and hosted on Hostmonster.com. Recently I built my site on WordPress and the nameservers are now pointing to it (i.e., it’s working and published at leadfeather.org). But when we made that change, of course the email addresses no longer work. So how do I set my DNS records at Hostmonster.com to point incoming emails to my Hostmonster account but the website itself to WordPress? I have not yet modified any of the DNS records there, and I’d be happy to send you a screenshot of their form. (The Hostmonster tech support person told me to contact WordPress; they don’t know how to do this, apparently.)

  The blog I need help with is leadfeather.org.

  The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

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  alexjgustafson · Member · May 24, 2015 at 4:02 pm

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  Hi there!

  Since your name servers correctly point leadfeather.org to your WordPress.com site, you don’t need to make further DNS changes there. Your DNS settings here will take effect.

  Visit this page:

  https://wordpress.com/my-domains

  Next to leadfeather.org, click “Edit” and then select “Edit DNS” in the domain management window that pops up. This is where you’ll add an MX record to point emails back to your HostMonster email.

  The MX record you need to enter changes depending how it’s setup at HostMonster, I don’t see any public MX records in their knowledgebase. If you’ll login to your HostMonster account, that information should be supplied in your Email account settings, or you may need to contact their support.

  But adding those MX records here in your WordPress.com DNS settings is all that’s necessary. It will point your email back to the normal account and keep the website live here. It takes about 4 hours for MX records to function fully once they’ve been added.

  If you get the MX records from HostMonster, but have trouble adding them to your domain, let me know and I can add them for you.

  -Alex G.

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  cherylsloverlinett · Member · May 25, 2015 at 8:12 pm

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  Thanks very much, Alex. I had a further conversation with the HostMonster people and they tell me this isn’t possible. Something about how their webhosting and email hosting are linked in such a way that they can’t point the site to one place and the email back to their own servers. They can point both point externally, though – e.g. the site to WordPress and the email to, say, Google Apps’s domain mail. Which all sounds strange to me.

  But you’re saying that it’s actually done by changing the DNS records at WordPress, not at Hostmonster, correct? (In other words, Hostmonster points the whole thing to WordPress via nameservers, and at WordPress we point the email only back to Hostmonster via MX records.) Am I understanding this?

  If so, I’ll ask Hostmonster what the MX records should be to point the email back to my hosting account with them. But I fear I may have to just buy Google Apps and create my custom email address (@leadfeather.org) there.

  I’m not a tech person, as you can see…but is this making sense? Thanks again,

  Cheryl

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  alexjgustafson · Member · May 26, 2015 at 3:50 pm

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  Hi Cheryl,

  They can point both point externally, though – e.g. the site to WordPress and the email to, say, Google Apps’s domain mail. Which all sounds strange to me.

  The way they would offer to do this is to map your domain to us using an A Record, instead of name servers. And then they’d setup your mx records to point to Google Apps. (But if your name servers stayed the same, you wouldn’t need to even point to another email provider in the first place.)

  We prefer mapping your domain over name servers, because we rotate your hosting between multiple data centers. If you map it as that A record instead, you’re mapping will break often, and you’ll have to keep change that A record every time our data centers rotate. Not a fun scenario.

  But you’re saying that it’s actually done by changing the DNS records at WordPress, not at Hostmonster, correct? (In other words, Hostmonster points the whole thing to WordPress via nameservers, and at WordPress we point the email only back to Hostmonster via MX records.) Am I understanding this?

  That 100% it! You’ve got it. :)

  The MX records control only email, the name servers control everything.

  If so, I’ll ask Hostmonster what the MX records should be to point the email back to my hosting account with them. But I fear I may have to just buy Google Apps and create my custom email address (@leadfeather.org) there.

  Having them provide MX records would be ideal. But it’s possible they’re just not equipped to provide email without the domain being hosted there. (That’s a strange scenario, but I suppose it’s possible.)

  If you do end up needing another email provider, just leave your name servers at HostMonster pointed to us like they are, and setup your email provider on our DNS settings:

  Add Email to Your Domain

  https://en.support.wordpress.com/add-email/add-email-through-google-apps/

  That’s basically what we’re trying to do now, just with their email service instead of Google/Zoho/etc.

  I’m not a tech person, as you can see…but is this making sense?

  I think you’re more techy than you let on. ;) You’re doing great.

  Let me know what they say about the MX records.

  -Alex G.