How to Validate MX record Prior DNS Change.

[eCon]

I have a domain (zotefoams-usa.com)created on a shared IP.
-We are hosting the mail at the end users facility.
-We have turned the Mail Service OFF.
-We added an MX record that point to the offsite IP in the DNS configuration settings.

Is seems we should be able to query our nameserver aliase(ns2.onlinessl.net)to see that the MX record exist(even though it is not the authoritative record.)

The query from dnsstuff.com shows only data from the current host.

We want to be sure that everything is configured correctly prior to making the authoritative record change at the registrar level.

Any suggestions?

[Brangwyn]

http://216.157.132.76/uploads/dnsview.zip

[eCon]

Thank you. That is a great tool. I still can't seem to get comfortable with the results and am therefore hesitant to launch the site on this server.

- I can query current DNS info on NS and NS1. I get no results from NS2 and NS3. The TTL is 1 day. Should have propogated by now. Am I missing something?

- I don't understand how the domain level control in H-sphere handles the MX record once we point the domain to our nameserver. Is a record change sent out by this DNS function in H-sphere?

-It is a scary thought when you have the potential to shut down a large companies email. :-0

[mresell]

putting a number in that is less than 10 for the mx record is important. Apparently 10 or above is where hsphere's built in records take over. So the other mx record may not get looked at properly. Also it can take more than 24hrs depending on where queries are being done.

[Brangwyn]

Thank you. That is a great tool.

Your welcome

Actually most Windows OS'es have something similar built in as well, its a command called "nslookup"

If you open a command window (cmd) and type nslookup and hit enter it will go into interactive mode

Then enter the command "set type=all" hit enter
Then just enter the domain name you want to check i.e example.com and it will return the dns info

type "help" at any time in interactive mode to get more commands.

What mresell said about MX records is right, the priority is used to determine which order a sending mailserver will try to send mail too, an MX < 10 will put it with a higher priority than the Vortech mailserver which H-Sphere usually creates with a priority of 10