Need help setting up my registrar DNS info for mail support

[yasston]

Hello,
I am in a learning process regarding domains and DNS, so please excuse me if these questions have answers I didn't see.
My registrar says that, seeing that I am not using their DNS, I should set up the following settings with ZoneEdit zone management, in order for the mail addresses to work :

pop 10800 IN CNAME access.mail.gandi.net.
webmail 10800 IN CNAME agent.mail.gandi.net.
smtp 10800 IN CNAME relay.mail.gandi.net.
imap 10800 IN CNAME access.mail.gandi.net.
@ 10800 IN MX 10 spool.mail.gandi.net.
@ 10800 IN MX 50 fb.mail.gandi.net.
@ 10800 IN TXT "v=spf1 include:_mailcust.gandi.net ?all"

Can someone please tell me where and how I could set such settings, and if you could please also give me a quick explanation about what these records are, what do they represent, and why they are needed, I would really appreciate it.
Thanks in advance

 

[sproskin]

Hello Yasston.

Those should be some fairly simple records to create.

For example the first record "pop 10800 IN CNAME access.mail.gandi.net." what you'd do here is log into your Zoneedit control panel (https://cp.zoneedit.com) and click manage on your domain then click on the 'DNS Settings' tab and then on the 'DNS Information' line, click the CNAME link and then 'edit'.
On the Host line, fill in 'pop' and then on the address line fill in 'access.mail.gandi.net.'. Ensure that you have the trailing dot at the end.

After that, just hit next and then confirm.

Repeat that for each CNAME. The other two records would be created similarly, however they would be accessed through the MX & TXT record sections.

More information on record editing here: https://support.zoneedit.com/Knowledgebase/Article/View/5/0/managing-your-dns-settings

 

[yasston]

Thank you very much for the detailed answer ! I did the necessary modifications, it was easy thanks to your guidance. I have a few questions though :
- What is the purpose of the trailing dot mean ?
- Why can't I leave the trailing dot for the MX records ? Even when I put them when I edit records, Zoneedit seems to delete them after confirmation.
- For my education, can you tell me more about the TXT record "v=spf1 include:_mailcust.gandi.net ?all" and its purpose ?
Thanks again !

 

[sandy]

the trailing . is only there as its a required syntax for BIND.. the type of DNS we run...
its not required in the other resource records....

spf records tell other mail servers where mail from your domain name is OK to originate from...

if a mail server is checking for SPF records and it receives a message from you from a mail server reference not listed in the SPF record then that message may not make it through.

thanks