Keeping Exchange mail internal but host website with third party.

[Ned Hart]

Hello

I searched google and I think I have the answer, I would appreciate
your feedback.

I host my own exchange mail server and webserver for a domain I will
call MYDOMAIN.COM. DNS servers are provided and managed by my ISP. I
have decided to outsource the webhosting to a third party but I do not
want to interrupt delivery of mail to my exchange server or cause any
other problems.

Is it as simple as asking my ISP to change the A records to point to
the IP of the webhost and leave the MX records unchanged?

MYDOMAIN.COM IN A (IP of 3rd party webhost)
MYDOMAIN.COM IN MX (UNCHANGED - My Exchange server)
WWW.MYDOMAIN.COM IN A (IP of 3rd party webhost)

Thanks in advance for your help.
NH

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

Hello

I searched google and I think I have the answer, I would appreciate
your feedback.

I host my own exchange mail server and webserver for a domain I will
call MYDOMAIN.COM. DNS servers are provided and managed by my ISP. I
have decided to outsource the webhosting to a third party but I do not
want to interrupt delivery of mail to my exchange server or cause any
other problems.

I agree with your choice to have your public website hosted outside your
network, from a security standpoint as well as resource load.

Is it as simple as asking my ISP to change the A records to point to
the IP of the webhost and leave the MX records unchanged?
Yes.

MYDOMAIN.COM IN A (IP of 3rd party webhost)
MYDOMAIN.COM IN MX (UNCHANGED - My Exchange server)
WWW.MYDOMAIN.COM IN A (IP of 3rd party webhost)

Might want to look into having someone else act as 'backup' - set up a
secondary MX record for your domain's mail that points to their SMTP server
for store/forward - this will automatically retry delivery to your primary
server for X days. This can help you avoid losing mail.

Also - what ports do you currently have open in your firewall? For OWA, I'd
suggest using SSL - then you can open 443 and close 80.