Do I really need an MX record? (for e-mail to work)

[MRJ InfoTech Admin]

> > Having an MX and SPF record in place in the zone file will avoid any such
> > issues.
>
>Yes, I am looking into SPF records.  Where / who hosts the data?


Well it seems to be working fine for you then. I don't know how because I 
couldn't get anything from the three above mentioned hotmail, gmail and 
yahoo when I didn't have MX records, and even without SPF record I couldn't 
get them to relay to me.

As for the SPF, you host it with your MX records if you have any.

I doubt having SPF records will work unless you specify an MX

In the zone file you should add


@               MX      10 mail ; Mail for *@yourserver.com
@               MX      15 mail2        ; Mail for *@yourserver.com

@               TXT   "v=spf1 a mx ip4:##.###.##.1 ip4:##.##.##.2" ; SPF 
record for mail servers


Where ##.##.##.1 and 2 are the IP addresses to your mail servers.

but then again, there you have MX values back again.