What do I add for "alias" when creating a new DNS record?
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My domain host is A Small Orange. I mapped to WordPress and everything is fine there. However, I need to get my email working. I spoke with customer service at A Small Orange, and they gave me a CNAME record and an “A” record. When I create a CNAME record with the info they gave me, I’m not sure if (a) this record will allow my email address (email visible only to moderators and staff) to work correctly, or if I need to add an MX record and (b) if I just need the CNAME record, what I should add in the “alias” space. Thanks!
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hi!
I’m not 100% positive of the correct email records for A Small Orange. Email records vary depending on the email provider. Some require MX records while others don’t. You’ll need to check with A Small Orange to confirm that the CNAME and A record are the only two things you need for the domain to work correctly. They should be able to provide you with all of the necessary values. Could you reach out to them one last time?
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Hey Jeremy,
Well, the second time around, I was able to extract a bit more information–the CSR at A Small Orange told me that I need to add an MX record with the following information: roseeditorial.com, mail.roseeditorial.com, priority 14400.
Honestly, though, I don’t think the CSR knew what he was talking about. Upon researching the DNS records on A Small Orange, I found the following:
Name: mail.roseeditorial.com, TTL: 14400, Class: IN, Type: CNAME, Record: roseeditorial.com
Name: webmail.roseeditorial.com, TTL: 14400, Class: IN, Type: A, Record: 143.95.39.102
There is also an ftp record present.
This is the transcript from the CSR whom I spoke to (it’s a bit long, but maybe it will help):
Chris S.Hello Christopher Rose. How may I help you?
3:48 pm Christopher Rose Could you please provide me with the complete MX and/or other DNS records I will need to enter on WordPress.com’s end, so that my email on this domain will continue to function? The email that needs to function is (email visible only to moderators and staff).
Chris S.I’d be happy to help you with this Christopher. So you need your MX information — is that right?
Christopher Rose I’ve pointed my name servers to WordPress.com. Yes, that’s correct, if the MX information is all that I need to add to keep my email address functioning.
Chris S.Ok, your mx record would be: mx.example.com
And I’m not familiar with using WordPress to manage your email. As far as I’m aware that should be all you need, is it using IMAP or POP?Christopher Rose Hold on a sec–I’ll give you what they need specifically…
Chris S.That’d be great thanks, take all the time you need.
Christopher Rose In order for me to input the MX entry, I’d need the following: example.com (I’m assuming this is my domain name) handled by mail.example.com, and the priority number.
Also, FYI, this is the message that I got from wordpress.com: “I’m not 100% positive of the correct email records for A Small Orange. Email records vary depending on the email provider. Some require MX records while others don’t. You’ll need to check with A Small Orange to confirm that the CNAME and A record are the only two things you need for the domain to work correctly. They should be able to provide you with all of the necessary values. Could you reach out to them one last time?”
Chris S.Ok gotcha. Yeah, so you’d use mail.example.com for them — let me get that priority number for you.
Christopher Rose Awesome, thanks
Chris S.14400 is the priority number.
Christopher Rose Okay, great. So it would be roseeditorial.com, mail.roseeditorial.com, priority 14400?
Chris S.Exactly right.
Christopher Rose Okay, let me give that a shot and see what happens…
Chris S.Sure, no problem. Take all the time you need.Christopher Rose Hmm… that doesn’t seem to be working, but I’ll send this over to the wordpress person and see if they need to format it differently. And the MX is the only thing I need for email to work correctly?
Chris S.That should be it. If it still gives issues though Christopher you can email our techs directly at (email visible only to moderators and staff) and they can find out what’s going on and get this working correctly for you.
Christopher Rose Okay, awesome–thanks for your help! That’s all I need for now.Chris S.No problem at all. And great, have a wonderful rest of your day!
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Hey Chris,
Normally, new DNS records take anywhere between 24-48 hours to fully propagate, but your email should be working by now. Can you let me know if you experienced any success giving it a whirl?
The MX record that you entered looks correct to me, although the 14400 priority on the MX record is higher than I’ve seen. Normally, it’s 10 or 20. That doesn’t mean it’s wrong though.
I dug through the A Small Orange support forum, but I’m afraid I couldn’t find any resource for what records to add. I’m sorry I can’t be of more help here! If the email isn’t working, I would suggest reaching out one more time to the technical team that the support individual suggested. Once we have the right records, they should be simple to integrate.
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Sorry for the back and forth here! Please let me know once we have the full records, and I’m happy to help add them in.
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Hey Jeremy, the support team via email was awesome, and I was able to get the correct DNS records. They are updated, and my email address is now working. Thanks again for your help!
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