How to Update MX Records for DuoCircle Services

Summary: This article explains how to update your MX records for DuoCircle email services such as Email Gateway, Backup MX, and Email Forwarding. It gives step-by-step instructions and example MX record configurations.

Objective: By following this guide, you will learn how to update MX records so that DuoCircle routes your email correctly.

Introduction

If you use any DuoCircle service, such as Email Gateway, Email Backup MX, or Email Forwarding, you must update your domain's MX records to point to our inbound mail servers.

Prerequisites

  • Access to your domain registrar or DNS provider's control panel
  • Your DuoCircle login credentials, to view your custom MX record
  • Familiarity with basic DNS settings

Step-by-Step Instructions

  1. Identify the DuoCircle service type you use:
  2. Access your custom MX record:

    Sign in to the DuoCircle Portal, click "My Services", and select the relevant service from the table.

    Find the "Your Custom MX" field under the Service Settings section.

    Your custom MX record has the format a######.mx.mailhop.org, or it is the record named in your account.

    Example of Custom MX Record
  3. Update your MX records with your domain registrar or DNS provider:

    Sign in to your domain registrar or DNS provider's control panel.

    Find the current MX records for your domain and replace them with the DuoCircle records below.

  4. Configure MX records according to your service:

    For Email Gateway and Email Forwarding:

    MX 10 Your custom MX Record (from customer portal) or mx1.mailhop.org
MX 20 mx1.mailhop.us
MX 30 mx1.mailhop.co
MX 40 mx1.mailhop.co.uk

    For Email Backup MX, use the same four hostnames. Put your own mail server first, and give our records the higher priority numbers:

    MX 10 mail.yourdomain.com.
MX 20 Your custom MX Record (from customer portal) or mx1.mailhop.org
MX 30 mx1.mailhop.us
MX 40 mx1.mailhop.co
MX 50 mx1.mailhop.co.uk

    Add all four DuoCircle records. They use four top-level domains held at two different DNS providers. If one DNS provider or one registry fails, senders can still resolve one of the others. See MX Records with Redundant DNS Providers.

    Older setups use mx2. or mx3. hostnames. Those records still work, so your mail keeps flowing. Move to the mx1. records above when it is convenient. Only the mx1. names have regional equivalents, so an mx2. setup cannot use single-region filtering.

    Filtering in one region only: The records above send your mail to whichever of our two regions is healthy at the time. If you need your mail filtered only in the United States, or only in the European Union, use the regional records instead. See Geographically Diverse Filtering Zones for the full sets.

IMPORTANT: If Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 receives the mail we relay through your Email Gateway or Backup MX service, you must complete extra steps. Those platforms keep a separate list of trusted inbound sources. See below.

  1. Follow the additional setup for Google Workspace if it applies. See this support article for detailed instructions.
  2. Follow the additional setup for Microsoft 365 if it applies. See this support article for detailed instructions.
  3. Allow our delivery addresses on your firewall. If a firewall sits in front of your mail server, allow the addresses we deliver from. See IP Addresses for Firewalls.

Conclusion

Your MX records are now configured for your DuoCircle service. DNS changes can take up to 48 hours to propagate.