Namecheap Private Email DNS records for domains on Namecheap Hosting nameservers

If your domain is hosted with us (using our hosting nameservers dns1-2.namecheaphosting.com) and you would like to use the Namecheap Private Email service, you can set appropriate MX, CNAME, SRV, and TXT records in your cPanel. We have a step-by-step guide on how to log into cPanel for your convenience.

NOTE: Namecheap Web Hosting’s cPanel includes the cPanel email service, which is configured by default. If you decide to switch to Private Email, please note that the two services cannot work simultaneously. Once the Private Email DNS records are added to your cPanel, the cPanel email hosting will stop working. You can check the differences between the two email services here.



NOTE: We will use the nctest.info domain in the text guide as an example.

1. Log into cPanel and navigate to the Domains section > the Zone Editor menu:



2. Click the Manage button next to the domain which DNS zone you would like to edit:



3. Choose the MX option and remove all existing MX records:



4. Once done, using the +Add Record box add 2 new MX records with 10 priority:

mx1.privateemail.com
mx2.privateemail.com



Verify the changes:



Next, go to the Email section in cPanel > the Email Routing menu:



If you have several domains or subdomains, choose the needed domain from the drop-down list and set Email Routing to Remote Mail Exchanger > click Change:



5. Now go back to the cPanel home page and navigate to the Domains section > the Zone Editor menu:



Click the Manage button next to the domain which DNS zone you would like to edit:



6. At this step, you will need to update DNS records for your domain.

NOTE: make sure not to edit/remove A record for your domain name, as it may result in your website downtime.



Create the new ones (or edit present ones) with the following syntax:

NOTE: if your cPanel default TTL value is 14400 - feel free to use this value instead of 1200.

 

                      mail.yourdomain.com      CNAME   1200  privateemail.com

                               default._domainkey   TXT       1200   should be generated and copied using this guide

(NOTE: DKIM record is a mandatory entry to ensure outgoing mail works correctly. It can be generated only after a mailbox has been created.)

                               yourdomain.com        TXT        1200  v=spf1 include:spf.privateemail.com ~all
          
            autoconfig.yourdomain.com     CNAME    1200  privateemail.com

         autodiscover.yourdomain.com     CNAME   1200  privateemail.com

_autodiscover._tcp.yourdomain.com    SRV        1200    Priority: 0
                                                                                          Weight: 0
                                                                                          Port: 443  
                                                                                          Target: privateemail.com



Once done, verify the changes:

Allow up to 30 minutes for the records to propagate and check the work of your mail service.

What these records are needed for?

MX record (mail exchange record), is an entry in the Domain Name System that identifies the mail server that is responsible for handling e-mails for that domain name. MX record is used to direct emails to a specific email server - thus, it is necessary for receiving emails to domain-based email addresses.

TXT record (text record) is a type of resource record in the Domain Name System (DNS) used to provide the ability to associate some arbitrary and unformatted text with a host or other name, such as human-readable information about a server, network, data center, and other accounting information. SPF and DKIM records are set up as TXT ones, and provide other mail servers a way to verify if the email was sent from authorized my domain's owner mail server (SPF), and whether it wasn't changed from the moment the message had left the initial mail server (DKIM). These records do not affect receiving emails to the domain they are set up for.

SRV record (service record) is a specification of data in the Domain Name System defining the location, i.e. the hostname and port number, of servers for specified services.

CNAME record (canonical name record) is a type of resource record in the Domain Name System (DNS) used to specify that a domain name is an alias for another domain, the 'canonical' domain. All information, including subdomains, IP addresses, etc., is defined by the canonical domain. CNAME record for mail subdomain is set up only for URL redirect from mail.domain.tld to Private Email Webmail (https://privateemail.com/). CNAME records for autodiscover and autoconfig subdomains and the SRV record are used for automatic email accounts set up by some email clients.

Once done, do not forget to create the email box using this guide.

That's it!

              
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