Numbers on mx records

[Barry Margolin]

In article <dirt2f$i44$1 at sf1.isc.org>,
 Andy Pieters <x_terminat_or_3 at yahoo.fr> wrote:

> HI list
> Please forgive my ignorance but I used zoneedit to handle my dns (thanks to 
> this list) and now when I do a 
> 
> dig mx vlaamse-kern.com
> 
> it shows
> 
> 0 mail.vlaamse-kern.com
> 20 mta.pro.numericable.fr
> 
> Doing the same for other sites shows mx records starting with number 1

I'm surprised.  Most sites I look at use multiples of 10, often 10, 20, 
30.

> 
> I know that these numbers determine the order, and that the higher the number 
> the lower the priority(?) but does 0 rather then 1 mean absolute priority?

No, the numbers don't mean anything by themselves.  All that matters is 
the order.

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar at alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***