How to manage DNS records and set up email for your domain

For a domain you bought or transferred through Magic Pages, you manage its DNS records in the portal, on the domain's own page. A change is saved on our nameservers straight away. Other networks may keep the old value until its TTL runs out, which is an hour for a record with the default TTL.

This is only for domains registered with us. If your domain is registered somewhere else, its DNS stays with that provider, and we cover connecting it here:

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Where to find the records

1. In the portal, open the Domain tab.
2. Under Registered with Magic Pages, click the domain.
3. Scroll to DNS records.

The list shows every record in the domain's zone, with its type, name, value and TTL. It appears once the domain is registered or has finished moving to us, and it stays while a renewal is due or a payment has failed. It isn't available once the domain has gone offline.

Set up email in one click

If your mailbox is with Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Fastmail or Proton, click that provider's button next to Set up email with.

It takes effect straight away, with no confirmation step. It replaces every MX record on the domain itself with your provider's, and adds your provider to the domain's SPF record (or creates one). If the domain has more than one SPF record, the button won't run until you delete the extra one.

Your provider will usually give you a few more records to add: a DKIM record for signing your mail, and sometimes a TXT record to prove you own the domain. The button doesn't add those, so add them by hand as described below.

Using a different provider? Add its MX and SPF records by hand in the same way.

Add, change or delete a record

1. Click Add a record.
2. Pick the Type: A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, SRV or CAA.
3. Enter the Name. Use @ for the domain itself, or the part before your domain for anything else, like mail for mail.yourdomain.com.
4. Enter the Value your provider gave you. For an MX record, also fill in Priority (MX only). An SRV record needs a priority too.
5. Leave TTL (seconds) as it is unless your provider asks for something specific. It can be anything from 600 to 86400. Then click Add record.

To change a record, use the edit button on its row and click Save record. The delete button next to it asks you to confirm, then removes the record with Delete record.

A TXT value can be up to 2,048 characters of plain text: letters, digits and standard punctuation, but no double quotes, backslashes or accented characters. If your provider's DKIM key comes wrapped in quotes, leave them out.

Two DNS rules apply at every provider. A name that has a CNAME record can't have any other record, and a name can only have one SPF record. If you try either, the portal tells you what's in the way.

Records you can't change

Some rows are marked Managed and have no edit button. We look after these so your site and newsletter keep working:

• The records that connect your domain to your site: every record named www, and the A, AAAA and CNAME records on the domain itself. While the domain is parked, they point at our holding page instead. MX and TXT records on the domain itself stay yours to edit.
• The nameserver records. These tell the internet where your domain's DNS lives.
• Newsletter sending records. If your newsletter sends from this domain, we manage the records that let it do so.
• A record that stops others sending email as your domain. Until you set up email, the domain carries an SPF record saying no server may send mail for it. We replace it the moment you add an MX or SPF record, or click one of the email buttons above.

If your newsletter already sends from this domain, its SPF record is one of the managed ones. To add your mailbox provider to it, use the button for your provider under Set up email with. The portal won't let you add a second SPF record next to it.

A copy of your records, every time they change

Whenever you change a record, we email the domain's owner a fresh domain passport: a zip with a summary of the registration and a complete copy of the DNS records. We gather changes made close together into one email, sent about 15 minutes after the first.

You can also download the current one at any time with Download domain passport, under Your records on the same page.