Point your MX records at SpamDuster

Before you change MX records

Change MX records last. Before you do, check that:

1. every domain is listed on Mail domains (Add your mail domains);
2. your destination mail server is set and its test passes (Set your destination mail server);
3. a test message arrived (Send a test message through the filter).

Change the MX records

Make this change at the company that hosts your domain's DNS, for each domain.

1. Find the domain's existing MX records.
2. Add an MX record whose mail server is your Mail host (MX target) from the welcome email, for example 123456.customer.spamduster.com. Use priority 10.
3. Delete the old MX records that point straight at your own mail server.
4. Save the changes.

If you set a custom hostname for your filter, you can use it as the MX target instead. See Use your own hostname for the filter.

Why the old MX records must go

Keep only the SpamDuster MX record. Spammers often send to a domain's lower-priority MX records on purpose, so an old record left pointing at your own server lets them skip the filter.

How long the change takes

Mail moves to SpamDuster as DNS caches expire the old records. This takes as long as the records' time-to-live (TTL), often between a few minutes and a few hours. During that time some mail still arrives directly at your mail server; nothing is lost. The Dashboard and the Mail page show mail arriving through the filter.

After mail is flowing

Once all mail arrives through SpamDuster, you can set your mail server to accept incoming mail only from the SpamDuster server's IP address. Spammers who find your mail server directly then cannot go around the filter.