set-up-my-own-email-domain

how to set up my own email domain

get a domain mydomain.com
get an smtp server to handle sending emails (link mydomain.com to smtp server)
get a dns provider to register dns records, so that the domain will be able to receive emails
(optional) ask dns provider to forward email sent to mydomain.com to a more easily accessible email service like gmail, to enable normal email workflow with gmail, such as UI; instead of using the smtp provider’s email UI; wait, i actually dont need that
(optional) allow gmail to send mail as mydomain.com

step 4 is for when my domain isn’t linking to a smtp server, if i set up MX records in dns provider, dns provider will route (forward) emails sent to mydomain.com to another email:
- sender sends email to [email protected] → dns provider handles dns and forward to gmail
- i actually don’t need this forwarding!

sending:

SMTP is used, need an smtp server
need to set up dns record (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) in dns provider for the SMTP server to send with a custom domain
- they are actually all TXT records.
- these records are for authentication, they are used to prove that this SMTP server is allowed to use this domain

receiving:

set up MX records on DNS provider, so that incoming emails to this domain are directed to the correct SMTP server
- in the case for ^step-4, i set up MX record to forward emails sent to my domain to my gmail
a mail server runs somewhere to receive the emails forwarded by DNS provider

other than MX record, why do i still need other stuff in my dns config?
why would an email be marked as spam?
what’s DMARC
on resend, there’s no place to config my email prefix, it’s currently done on cloudflare (yc@, me@, etc), if i don’t add them to cloudflare, the email will get lost and won’t be received. why is that? i have no place to config this prefix on SMTP server, and have to config on cloudflare?
if i disable routing for yc@domain on cloudflare, it won’t be able to receive email.