Email Protection: Primary Gateway Routing

Choose the correct route

Backup MX is secondary queue-and-forward service, without a mailbox pre-check or content scanning. Email Protection uses gate.securawall.com as the only published MX and delivers email to the receiving server you configure manually.

Save the receiving server before changing DNS

Record and verify the real public server hostname/IP and SMTP port first. Never resolve delivery from the protected domain MX, which points back to SecuraWall. After the route is verified, remove other MX records and publish only the gateway.

Separate user authentication from recipient observations

Incoming senders provide no portal login or mailbox password. Protected packages may perform a bounded SMTP recipient probe without DATA or mailbox credentials. Only explicit unknown-recipient responses reject early; uncertainty proceeds to queuing.

Evaluate the configured message policy

Global and domain switches determine which spam, malware, sender-domain and content controls run. Reject decisions stop acceptance; hold decisions quarantine; accepted or marked mail proceeds to the delivery queue. Review queue and quarantine separately.

Interpret delivery outcomes

Temporary failures retry within the configured lifetime. Permanent destination failures or expiry can generate a delivery failure notice. A gateway queue response is not remote delivery, and remote SMTP acceptance is not inbox confirmation.

Restrict bypass deliberately

Only publishing the gateway as MX directs normal DNS-based delivery through it; it does not stop someone connecting directly to the real server IP. Configure the receiving server to accept the intended gateway route if strict bypass prevention is required.

References and service conditions

• SMTP: RFC 5321
• Null MX: RFC 7505
• Current plan limits
• Security responsibilities