Score:1

Google MX tool fails server check, but MX records are set up and working

bq flag

I host my domain on Gandi and have my nameservers pointed to my Digital Ocean hosting. In my DNS settings on Digital Ocean I have the (old style) MX records set up for Google Mail as such:

Type Hostname Value Priority
MX studioal.com aspmx.l.google.com. 1
MX studioal.com alt1.aspmx.l.google.com. 5
MX studioal.com alt2.aspmx.l.google.com. 5
MX studioal.com alt3.aspmx.l.google.com. 10
MX studioal.com alt4.aspmx.l.google.com. 10

Today I finally decided to set up SPF. In the process, I used Google's suggestion to run their MX Check tool, but when I do, it gives me the result "! Domain must have at least one mail: Mail servers are either not specified or not reachable or refuse to accept mail for this domain.", as if I do not have MX records set up at all. I have been sending and receiving emails just fine for years with this setup. And MX lookups via command line or mxtoolbox.com returns the google MX records correctly. Could there be another issue with my setup or is Google's MX Check tool simply not working? I've run it multiple times with the same result.

One thing I do note when looking up on mxtoolbox.com is that it returns two IP addresses for every MX hostname — so it shows, for example:

Hostname IP Address
aspmx.l.google.com 142.251.163.27
aspmx.l.google.com 2607:f8b0:4004:c06::1a

What is that second record — why are there two — and what does it mean?

joeqwerty avatar
cv flag
`1.` One is an IPv4 record. The other is an IPv6 record. Perfectly normal. `2.` Why don't you tell us the actual domain name so that we can... actually check it. Without the domain name we can't actually know what's wrong and therefore can't answer your question as it stands now.
StudioAl avatar
bq flag
@joeqwerty, thanks for the explanation of the IPv4. And, hah, I don't really know why I hid the actual domain. Edited my question to show it.
ItsJustMe avatar
ws flag
If that is really our domain then everything is fine with your MX records. The tool must not be looking up correctly. I don't think its a DNS issue either as it shows just fine all across the world in dnschecker I just tried it on my own domain and it says the same. Googles MX checker not working properly
pl flag
If you are a paying Google Workspace customer, you should be able to contact their support team about this.
StudioAl avatar
bq flag
Thanks all. That's what I figured, but this stuff is not my forté, so I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something.
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