Newbie here seeking guidance

#1

New to mail hosting and quite surprised to find out that there are no basic instructions provided for a start… At least I din’t find them as KB is thin as as leaf.

I received a welcome email with settings for DNS MX RECORDS, DNS TXT RECORDS (REQUIRED) and DKIM but nothing about WHERE & HOW to use them: registrar, cPanel, MXroute?

Sure that maybe sounds evident to most people here but there’s always a “first time” and some basic instructions would be welcome.

Thanks!

PS: not to mention that I was expecting a cPanel dashboard and getting something else ads to the confusion…

1 Like
#2

Hey friend,

Thanks for signing up! I understand it’s a bit of a hurdle, but we do have a few tutorials here:

https://mxroutehelp.com

There is, however, a reason that I stated on the front page that you need to know how to configure DNS records to use the service. If you’re not sure where to configure your DNS records (the location of which being something only you know and control), you have a significant disadvantage here that may cause you continued frustration down the line. If you’d prefer a refund, I’d be happy to give that to you.

#3

Thanks but that’s not what I was expecting.
Those tutorials are not helping in my case and I don’t well understand what do you mean by “you need to know how to configure DNS records”. Is it so complicated to just post a tutorial about “how to configure DNS records” that you prefer to keep away those who don’t yet know? I can Google it of course but thought I could find some basic information here.

No problem. I don’t need a refund, thanks. I just want to learn.
First thing I learned is that there won’t be much help here.

#6

OK, well noted but don’t even understand the meaning of that sentence “When you configure your nameservers at your registrar, it is an expectation that you will know where your DNS is hosted.”
I usually set NS at registrar and the remaining is managed at cPanel. Do you really mean that DNS records configuration is different from one cPanel dashboard to another? Hard to believe that.

( no, not using Cloudflare)

#8

Thanks Jarland, I was in fact expecting something like that and I’m sure I can find everything by Googling but I first tried here as I thought it was legitimate to expect some basic information at least for cPanel users as we are still the majority so far…

In fact, those questions are very simple, at least as far as basic configuration is concerned, and I don’t well understand why you would want to keep away newbies from learning. I’m a WP user and email deliverability is one of the main concerns for most users, especially those hosting on shared accounts. Services like this one you are offering here are problem solving and should be made accessible to everybody.

Anyhow, thanks for your time. I’ll find my way, no problem.
(I have another question but prefer to start a new thread)

#10

Thanks, no problem with that.
As I previously stated, services like yours should become more popular and accessible to non-techies because 1/ lots of people need them (even if they are not always aware of that…) and 2/ because the basic setup process is not as complex as it first looks (at least with shared cPanel accounts) and fits most needs with very little tech knowledge - provided some first steps are clearly indicated.

The Namecheap link you provided above is very helpful and probably sufficient for most users and I found similar tutorials at other hosts, like A2 for instance. They also prove my assertion #2 above to be correct.

#12

Good idea, will try to do that shortly, thanks.

#7

If you set your nameservers to a cPanel provider, that provider is where you would alter the DNS. Here’s an example of changing MX records in cPanel:

https://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx/9258/31/how-to-change-mx-records-and-email-routing-in-cpanel (The email routing part is important too, when you move email from that provider to us)

I think cPanel moved the SPF record. It used to be in Authentication with DKIM, but now I’m seeing that it may be somewhere around here:

When editing the SPF record, just make sure you do a “include:mxroute.com” or “include:mxlogin.com” (both equivalent) and that should be fine.

#13

Hope this helps:

General how-to for DNS setup with MXroute:

How to technically execute that using cPanel (instead of Cloudflare):

#4

Yes. There are hundreds of thousands of DNS providers and the step by step instructions will vary just enough to be significant for many of them. When you configure your nameservers at your registrar, it is an expectation that you will know where your DNS is hosted. To get to such a stage and not know where to set your DNS is unexpected and difficult to plan for, as every variation of settings that people choose at this stage would require a separate guide to be useful to anyone who would need a guide :slight_smile:

#5

Generally each DNS provider can be expected to either have documentation or support to help with their configurations. For example, if you were using Cloudflare, this would help:

#9

Just to close the loop on it:

Apologies it seemed like I want to keep keep you away. That’s not my full thought process. If it matters to you or anyone reading later, this is more of my thought process:

I’m aware of where my service is complex and can cause frustration, due to countless interactions with thousands of customers. As a result, I’ve identified common scenarios where a customer won’t be happy that I don’t feel prepared to compensate for in the current iteration of the service. An unhappy customer ultimately hurts two people: The customer who wastes their own time, and me who sends someone out into the world with a bad story to tell about my service. It’s intended to be mutually beneficial that I don’t attract customers who I think will end up being unhappy. I’d rather them find what they need than try to make a quick dollar at their expense.

2 Likes
#11

@dsl25

An other way to gain assistance and to create a collaborative support is to write yourself each of your operations, preferably with some screen shots. Post it here if you meet some issue.

If some members detect some errors in your process, the community’ll be in a better position to assist you.

Bonus, you will have created your first tutorial, which can benefit others…

We’re all newbies somewhere. Learning to learn and transmit is exciting:)