Troubleshoot web hosting issues with MxToolbox

The world of today is virtually unthinkable without the Internet. If you are not just a common user, but maybe a network administrator or host a domain, you have demands that exceed browser’s apps or some simple Linux code. You might have infrastructure issues of unknown origin, or maybe the web accessible mail you have trouble with spam, viruses and all the other unwanted occurrences that cause downtime. It would be perfect, wouldn’t it, if there was a tool that could provide a solution for all of these headaches at one place. Let’s see whatMxToolbox has to offer in that matter.

Features intro

The flagship product of MxToolbox Inc. introduced to the world the projects that were internal at start, but turned out to be of great use for many others. A wide range of tools covers support for global Internet operations, such as Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) diagnostics or domain name system (DNS) lookup. In fact, all of the lookup tools are for free, while those for monitoring have both options – depending on your needs, a free version could prove sufficient, otherwise, you have an option to purchase the Basic or Pro monthly plan. The report given after Domain Health Check is conducted is in fact the outcome of several hundreds of assessments which are testing the domain, email or network performance to confirm (or disprove) the system is optimally functioning (i.e. “healthy”). The results of a Domain Health analysis are displayed as the number of warning and errors or has passed in each of the above mentioned categories of test areas. MxToolbox also offers a knowledge database, containing troubleshooting for some of the most frequent problems, and at the same time used as a monitor for the domain server you choose.

Apart from these, the main sections of the MxToolbox are Blacklists, MxLookup, Diagnostics, DNS Lookup, Free Monitoring and Analyze Headers. A few words about the most prominent of them: Blacklists consist of over 100 major, DNS based email blacklists (aka Realtime blacklist, DNSBL or RBL), inspecting if a mail server IP address is present in some of them. Reduction of spam using this kind of check is generally known. If the mail server’s address is unknown, then MxLookup can be of assistance, since it can connect to the mail server and verify reverse DNS records. The next logical step from here would be Diagnostics, in order to find out whether your server has a reverse DNS (Pointer record – PTR) record. The procedure is simple: after connecting to the specified mail server using SMTP, the Open Relay Test is performed in order to verify the PTR. Additional information in form of response time measurement is also given. At the moment, all of the lookup tools are also gathered in one Supertool (available on homepage is the Beta7 version).

Customer’s reviews

MxToolbox seems to pass with flying colours on most of the websites with user’s ratings. The highest percentage of them are delighted with Blacklists option, as they use active blacklist monitoring constantly since it reduces the time required to pinpoint the issue with the domain or mail server. The recommendations are also given thanks to the quick and reliable service (even though it is free of charge) when the users wanted to lookup mail exchanger (MX) records for a domain. Some of them even go so far to state that there is nothing to dislike about it; others have found the price for upgraded account too high. The fact that MxToolbox brings together several invaluable tools at one spot, along with the timely warnings when there are any mail transmission problems, are also warm-welcomed. In the end, all of them describe MxToolbox as a trusted, dependable and safe aid in battling all kinds of troubles someone in web hosting may find.

Discover more about MxToolbox on the Marketplace or on the Knowledge Base.

Additional sources:

MxToolBox on SpiceWorks