Setting up your domain

Your domain is the part of your address after the @ — the example.com in ada@example.com.

Before Mailyte can send or receive mail for that domain, the internet has to be told that Mailyte is allowed to act for you. You do that by adding four short records at whichever company you bought the domain from. Mailyte writes the records for you; your job is to copy them across and press Verify.

Every domain has a public settings file, called its DNS. Mail systems around the world read it to answer two questions: where do I deliver mail for this domain, and is this sender allowed to send as it.

Four records answer those questions.

• MX — where mail for your domain should be delivered. Without it, nobody can send you anything. It carries a priority number, which is just the order to try servers in.
• SPF — the list of servers allowed to send as your domain. Without it, your mail is far more likely to be treated as spam.
• DKIM — an invisible signature on every message you send, which proves the message really came from you and was not altered on the way.
• DMARC — what receiving servers should do when a message fails the checks above. Mailyte generates one for you. Google and Yahoo now require it for bulk sending.

Records are public and take time to spread around the internet — usually minutes, occasionally up to an hour. Until they have spread, your domain shows as Pending. That is normal and does not mean anything is broken.

1. Go to Domains and press Add Domain. Type the domain exactly as you own it — example.com, not www.example.com and not an address.
2. Open the domain from the list. The page lists every record you need under Install and verify all DNS records listed below.
3. In another tab, sign in to the company you bought the domain from — your registrar or DNS host — and find its DNS settings. It may be called DNS, Name Servers, Advanced DNS, or Zone Editor.
4. Add each record from Mailyte, one at a time. Use the copy button next to each value rather than retyping it: a single missing character is the most common reason verification fails. Copy the type, the name, and the value exactly, and for MX also the priority.
5. Save at your DNS host, come back to Mailyte, and press Verify. The page shows when it last checked.
6. Each record turns green as it is found. When all of them are found, the domain becomes Active and you can create mailboxes on it.

If you have several domains waiting, you can select them on the Domains list and use Verify Selected instead of opening each one.

The domain still says Pending after a few minutes. Records take time to spread. Wait, then press Verify again. If an hour has passed, something in step 4 did not save.

One record is found but another is not. Check that record only. The usual causes are a trailing space, a missing quotation mark that your DNS host added or removed, or the name being entered as example.com when your host already adds the domain for you — some hosts want just @ or the prefix.

The domain says DNS Failed. The check ran and did not find what it needed. Compare each value against the page again and press Verify. Nothing is lost; a failed domain can be verified later.

Your registrar will not accept the value. Some hosts split long TXT values, or require quotes around them. Paste the value exactly as shown; if the field rejects it, ask your host how they want long TXT records entered.

You see a Retry button. That means Mailyte's own setup for the domain did not finish, which is not about your DNS. Press it, and open a ticket if it does not clear.

• Mailboxes — creating addresses once the domain is Active
• Senders and SMTP credentials — sending from your own applications
• Go to Domains