The term “hosting” does not describe a single service, but a number of services which offer various functions to a domain name. Having a website and e-mails, for instance, are two individual services though in the general case they come together, so a lot of people consider them as one single service. In fact, every domain has a number of DNS records called A and MX, which show the server that manages each specific service - the first one is a numeric IP address, which defines where the website for the domain address is loaded from, while the second one is an alphanumeric string, which shows the server that handles the e-mails for the domain name. As an example, an A record can be 123.123.123.123 and an MX record is mx1.domain.com. Every time you open a website or send an e-mail, the global DNS servers are contacted to check the name servers that a domain name has and the traffic/message is first forwarded to that company. In case you have custom records on their end, the web browser request or the email will be directed to the correct server. The reasoning behind using separate records is that the two services use different web protocols and you can have your website hosted by one service provider and the e-mails by another.
Custom MX and A Records in Shared Website Hosting
If you have a shared website hosting account from our company and you want to move either your site or your e-mails to an alternative provider, it'll take you literally only 2 mouse clicks to do it. Our Hepsia CP provides an easy-to-use DNS Records tool, where all your domain names and subdomains are going to be listed alphabetically and you will be able to see and change the A and/or MX records for any of them. If you decide to use a different e-mail provider and they ask you to set up more MX records than the standard two, it is not going to take more than a few mouse clicks either to add them. You can even set different latency for these records and the lower the latency, the greater the priority a given MX record is going to have. The propagation of any record that you modify or set up is not going to take more than several hours and if needed, you will also be able to set the so-called Time-To-Live value, that reveals how long a record will stay active after it's changed or deleted.
Custom MX and A Records in Semi-dedicated Hosting
If you purchase a semi-dedicated server plan from our company, you'll be able to see and change the A and MX records for any of the domain addresses or subdomains which you host within the account. The Hepsia CP, which you will get to control the account, provides an state-of-the-art, although easy-to-use tool where all hosts will be listed in alphabetical order and you'll be able to change their records with no more than several clicks. If you have to create a new record, it's going to be just as easy - select the domain/subdomain, type in the IP address or mail server record and you're going to be ready. Additionally, you'll be able to set different priority for the MX records that you create in case that you choose to use a third-party e-mail provider and they ask you to create additional records aside from the two standard ones. If you ever experience any problems, we have a detailed Help section with videos in which you can see first-hand how to create or modify any record.