Before you start: the two prerequisites
- A domain you control — the address after the @. If you don’t have one yet, our .ae registration guide covers choosing and registering it (and why .ae reads as local trust in the UAE).
- Email hosting — the service that stores mailboxes and talks to the world’s mail servers. Often bundled with your web hosting; the business-email comparison explains what to look for.
Step 1 — Plan and create your mailboxes
Create two kinds of addresses:
- People: [email protected], [email protected] — one real mailbox each.
- Roles: info@, sales@, accounts@, support@ — owned by the company, not a person. These can be full mailboxes or aliases that forward into one.
Role addresses go on the trade licence, the bank forms and the website — people come and go; info@ stays.
Step 2 — Point your MX records
In your domain’s DNS panel, set the MX records your email host gives you. This is the switch that routes @yourbrand.ae mail to your new mailboxes.
| Record | What it does | Typical value |
|---|---|---|
| MX | Routes incoming mail to your mail server | mail.yourbrand.ae (priority 10) |
| SPF (TXT) | Lists servers allowed to send as you | v=spf1 include:yourhost ~all |
| DKIM (TXT) | Cryptographically signs your outgoing mail | long key your host generates |
| DMARC (TXT) | Policy + reports for failed checks | v=DMARC1; p=quarantine; rua=mailto:… |
One caution from our migration guide: if you’re moving hosts, changing nameservers wholesale can silently wipe MX records — the classic “website moved, email died” mistake. Change individual records, not the delegation, unless you’ve copied everything first.
Step 3 — Publish SPF, DKIM and DMARC
This is the step most setups skip, and it’s the one that decides deliverability:
- SPF — one TXT record listing your legitimate sending servers. Receiving servers check it on every message claiming to be you.
- DKIM — your host generates a key pair; the public key goes in DNS, and every outgoing message gets an invisible signature receivers can verify. Unforgeable, unlike a display name.
- DMARC — ties the two together: “if a message fails SPF/DKIM, quarantine it, and send me a
report.” Start with
p=none(observe), move top=quarantineonce your reports are clean.
Beyond the inbox benefits, these records stop criminals from spoofing your domain in invoice-fraud attempts against your customers — a genuinely common attack in the Gulf. It’s the email half of the defence we describe in the SME security checklist.
Step 4 — Connect your apps
Add the mailbox to any client via IMAP (mail syncs across devices) rather than POP (downloads and deletes). Your host provides the server names; the pattern is:
- Incoming: IMAP, port 993, SSL
- Outgoing: SMTP, port 465/587, SSL, with authentication
Set up your signature (name, company, .ae web address, phone) once per device — it’s a small ad on every message you’ll ever send.
The finish line checklist
- Mailboxes created (people + roles) ✓
- MX pointing at your mail host ✓
- SPF, DKIM, DMARC published and tested ✓
- IMAP connected in everyone’s apps ✓
- Old free address forwarding + auto-reply during transition ✓
Ask Blue
Frequently asked questions
Blue Net Box is a UAE-based digital partner — domains, hosting, professional email, custom AI, branding and growth — in Dubai since 2010. Need a hand getting online? Talk to our team.
