HDUK Service Desk

Hosted Desktop UK provide our clients the option of a Hosted Microsoft Exchange service, in which we fully manage your organisations’ email from our own Infrastructure, including Anti-Spam and Anti-Virus filtering. We can migrate your existing email platform onto our Hosted Exchange servers within a few hours and you can continue to use your email just as before.

DNS Records

Section A - Hosted Exchange DNS Details

In most cases, your DNS records will be managed by the person or company who manages the DNS for your website(s). Once Hosted Desktop UK has confirmed with you the date and time of your email migration, you will need to request the person or company who manages your DNS to make the required changes as stated above for you, before Hosted Desktop can migrate your email.

PLEASE NOTE: If you have multiple domains which mail is sent to - i.e. ‘[email protected]’ and ‘[email protected]’ then the DNS records for all domains will need to be updated accordingly.

Section B - Checking your DNS Records

If you wish to check that your DNS records have been set correctly - such as because you are having issues with Outlook or with your mobile device - you can follow the steps below:

Part One - Check MX Records

B.1.1 - Go to http://network-tools.com/nslook/

(Please note that ‘Network-Tools.com’ is in no way connected or affiliated with Hosted Desktop UK and as such we have not control on the content of their site.)
B.1.2 - In the ‘Domain’ field, enter your website domain - In this example, we are checking ‘tscloud.co.uk’. Then, from the ‘Query Type’ drop-down list, select ‘MX - Mail exchange’.

B.1.3 -Click ‘Go’.

B.1.4 - As shown below, there are two records of type ‘MX’ for the domain ‘tscloud.co.uk’; both have a ‘Preference’ of ‘10’, the first one points to ‘mx2.hdcloud.co.uk’ and the second one points to ‘mx1.hdcloud.co.uk’.

Therefore, we know that the ‘MX’ records for this domain are correct.

Part Two - Check Autodiscover CNAME Records

B.2.1 - Return to the ‘Domain’ field, and enter ‘autodiscover.’ - In this example, we are checking ‘tscloud.co.uk’, therefore the ‘Domain’ is ‘autodiscover.tscloud.co.uk’. From the ‘Query Type’ drop-down list, select ‘CNAME - Canonical Name’ and then click ‘Go’.

B.2.2 - As shown below, there is one record of type ‘CNAME’ for the domain ‘autodiscover.tscloud.co.uk’ which points to ‘autodiscover.hdcloud.co.uk’. Therefore, we know that the Autodiscover ‘CNAME’ record for this domain is also correct.

Sender Policy Framework (SPF)

Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is a simple email validation system designed to detect email spoofing by providing a mechanism to allow receiving mail exchangers to check that incoming mail from a domain is being sent from a host authorised by that domain’s administrators. The list of authorized sending hosts for a domain is published in the Domain Name System (DNS) records for that domain in the form of a specially formatted TXT record. Email spam and phishing often use forged sender addresses, so publishing and checking SPF records can be considered anti-spam techniques.

You can use SPF records for your domain if you are using Hosted Exchange.

The SPF record will need to use this syntax in the creation of it.

v=spf1 mx include:hdcloud.co.uk -all

You can test your SPF record syntax after you have created the DNS entry by visiting a website like MXToolBox and entering your Domain, a link is below:

http://mxtoolbox.com/spf.aspx