How to point website somewhere else, but keep email on my server?

[PumpinIron]

Okay, this should be seemingly simple, but somehow it's confusing me. I have a domain I purchased through GoDaddy. I pointed the name servers to my server that I have with HostGator. That works fine and dandy, no issues whatsoever.

However, we recently decided to move the website to SquareSpace, but keep the email on the existing server. So, I went into the Advanced DNS editor in cPanel (on the current server) where I then added the new A records and CNAME records that the SquareSpace documentation told me to add.

Website works great, when you go to the website in a web browser it points you to the new SquareSpace website. However, emails are no longer working, which I don't understand.

Here's my current DNS records:

 

[cPanelMichael]

Hello,

You should verify the domain name uses the correct MX records and mail "A" record via a website such as IntoDNS (or the dig command). Also, ensure you select "Local Mail Exchanger" if email is handled on the same server as your DNS.

Thank you.

 

[PumpinIron]

Mail is set to local, still no luck with mail.

 

[cPanelMichael]

Are you receiving a specific error messages? Are you sending/receiving via webmail or a local email client?

Thank you.

 

[PumpinIron]

I am using a local client (Mac Mail) to connect. The odd thing is using Mac Mail I can RECEIVE emails, but not send them.

On the other hand, when I go to the website's cPanel and access webmail, I can both send and receive just fine.

I've triple checked my email settings in Mac Mail and I'm sure they're right. Correct ports for SMTP, correct server name, etc.

For some reason I think this has to do with DNS because none of this happened until I pointed those DNS records to the SquareSpace site.

 

[cPanelMichael]

Hello,

Are you sure the mail server name used for outgoing email is accurate? It's possible the mail server name is configured as the actual domain name instead of "mail.domain.com" or the mail server's hostname.

Thank you.

 

[PumpinIron]

The mail server for both incoming and outgoing mail is setup as mail.calcean.com. According to my mail configuration settings in cPanel that is what is should be.

I did however try using calcean.com instead of mail.calcean.com for incoming SMTP server and still it won't connect. As a precaution I added my IP to the cPhulk white list just to make sure I wasn't being blocked somehow for failed login attempts. That does nothing either...

Everything is standard in my SMTP settings, I'm trying to connect to port 25 at mail.calcean.com (and calcean.com) using my email address as the username and the correct password.

 

[cPanelMichael]

Feel free to open a support ticket using the link in my signature so we can attempt to reproduce the issue. There's likely a slight misconfiguration in your email client or with your DNS settings. You can post the ticket number here so we can update this thread with the outcome.

Thank you.

 

[Zero.80]

delete all mx records.... add a new one with priority 1 and mail.domain.com, check http://mxtoolbox.com/ to make sure your mail.domain.com is resolving to the correct IP address...

 

[wintech2003]

By default cPanel uses domain.com as your MX record, and since you probably changed the IP for domain.com, this means that mail is routed elsewhere.

Simply create a new A record mail.domain.com and point to your Hostgator VPS's IP, then go to MX entry and set your MX record to mail.domain.com
(it's possible that you already have a mail.domain.com CNAME - delete that and only keep the A record)