setting up email

[mwebb]

my domain was purchase from register.com the domain name is mikeswebb.com i'm getting ready to try to get the email stuff working. step one would be to change/add the mx record with register.com?
when i go to register.com and tell it i want to edit my mx records it display a new screen which shows the following:
*********************************
hostname _________.mikeswebb.com

priority "low"

mail server: _________________
********************************
should i put *.mikeswebb.com for hostname
leave priority alone
and for mail server put ether my public ip or mikeswebb.com ??

after a do this am i ready to go so far as register.com is concerned or do i have to change something else such as "cname" ??

[falko]

If you want an MX record for mikeswebb.com, then you should leave the hostname empty. If register.com doesn't allow it (for whatever reason), then put a * into the field.

As mail server you can use mikeswebb.com; I for myself always create an A record mail.mikeswebb.com (in this example) pointing to the same IP address as mikeswebb.com and use that one as mail server.

[mwebb]

If you want an MX record for mikeswebb.com, then you should leave the hostname empty. If register.com doesn't allow it (for whatever reason), then put a * into the field.

As mail server you can use mikeswebb.com; I for myself always create an A record mail.mikeswebb.com (in this example) pointing to the same IP address as mikeswebb.com and use that one as mail server.

if i do the A record thing do i still need to to the mx thing ??

[falko]

if i do the A record thing do i still need to to the mx thing ??
Yes, you create mail.mikeswebb.com as A record and then use mail.mikeswebb.com as mail server in the register.com form when you create an MX record for mikeswebb.com.