Problem with A-record, www and mail

[kapow]

I host a new website for a Client. Someone else manages their domain name, mail and internet connection. I asked them to configure the name so it points to the new IP for the website. They have a problem ie:

The request for an A record for domain.co.uk can not be done since the mail program uses this to queue and push the email. Anyone who types in domain.co.uk (without the www.) will not arrive at the web site. They offer a solution that will redirrect any http requests to www.domain.co.uk.

I'm worried that a redirrect will affect search engine perception of the site. I thought (perhaps mistakenly) that an A record can be created for the website and a separate MX record is created for mail. Should they be able to do this?

Is the best solution a .htaccess file with: redirect 301 / [domain.co.uk...]
or am I mixing things up?

[amoore]

Any decent DNS company can make an A record for example.com and point it to the same IP address as www.example.com. For the mail, they should have an MX record for example.com point to the IP address of the mail server that handles the mail for that domain. This is pretty elementary DNS stuff, and your provider should be able to handle it.

[kapow]

Thats what I thought.

If they can't do that whats the safest re-direct solution?
e.g. .htaccess redirect 301 ?

[TallTroll]

Hmmmmmm, A and MX records are independently editable, as they exist as separate fields in the domain record. I have several client domains where the A and MX records point to different servers.

>> If they can't do that whats the safest re-direct solution?

I would suggest transferring the domain to competent hosts :) Seriously, its not something that should cause them trouble

[Air]

Maybe it is just a misunderstanding based on the terminology. Don't ask for an "A" record, ask for a CNAME. They should be able to add as many variations of the host name as you want, the hostname specified on the MX record must point to a hostname with an "A" record, it cannot point to a CNAME. As a result, using the hostname example.com it is typical to have:

an "A" record for example.com
a CNAME for www.example.com
a MX record pointing to example.com

This allows both example.com & www.example.com to resolve, and mail sent to [e-mail] to be routed to the mail server specified on the MX record.

Hope that helps.

[richlowe]

I'm guessing the problem is that they have the domain name (without the www) pointing to their email server. I normally create a domain name with a prefix of MAIL or MAIL2 which goes to the email server. For example, mydomain.com and www.mydomain.com are A records which go to my web site and mail.mydomain.com is an A record which goes to my email server. the MX record then references the MAIL domain name (I also create a mail2 reference since I have redundant mail servers). But then, I run my own DNS servers so it's pretty easy for me to do what's correct.

It appears that the other posters are correct. Find a competent company to host your DNS or do it yourself (or educate these people if you can).

Thanks, Richard Lowe

[kapow]

The Guy is insisting on some kind of redirect. He suggested some html with a redirect - I said this can upset Google (instant redirects are often used to try and fool SEs), he said 'no problem, put a 'NO INDEX' tag in there'...

I'v asked if he can do
redirect 301 / [domain.co.uk...]
He's going to get back to me

[kapow]

What happens if there are links to the site [domain.co.uk...] and to [domain.co.uk?...] Google will see both and check both right?

[Air]

>Google will see both and check both right?
Yes.

>He suggested some html with a redirect
The guy is out in left field, how can you html redirect to a name that won't resolve?