convention for MX records

[Simon Waters]

Bob Zachok wrote:
> 
> Is this an acceptable way of setting up DNS for a domain?  Their
> ISP seems to think so.  I got into a strong discussion with their
> DNS administrator, because I felt that MX records should accurately
> reflect the actual mail exchangers.  Obviously, he disagreed.

Not really a DNS issue but an e-mail management one.

The e-mail undergoes an unneeded extra hop (Unless the other ISP
provided a service like virus scanning), which is a bit silly,
and it sounds like they have no back-up mail relay, which may
also be silly. So adding your mail server as the prefered MX
record would seem a sensible step.

Why not explain that to your customer, and get them to request
it *;-)