The definition of “hosting” does not describe a single service, but several services that provide different functions to a domain. Having a website and e-mails, for instance, are two independent services even though in the general case they come together, so most of the people consider them as one single service. Actually, each and every domain name has a several DNS records called A and MX, which show the server that manages each particular service - the former is a numeric IP address, which defines where the website for the domain address is loaded from, while the latter is an alphanumeric string, which shows the server that deals with the e-mails for the domain address. For example, an A record can be 123.123.123.123 and an MX record would be mx1.domain.com. Whenever you open a site or send an email, the global DNS servers are contacted to check the name servers that a domain address has and the traffic/message is first directed to that company. If you have custom records on their end, the browser request or the email will be directed to the correct server. The reasoning behind employing separate records is that the two services use different web protocols and you could have your site hosted by one service provider and the emails by another.

Custom MX and A Records in Shared Website Hosting

If you have a shared website hosting account through our company and you wish to point either your site or your e-mails to an alternative company, it will take you literally just two clicks to do this. Our Hepsia CP provides an easy-to-use DNS Records tool, where all your domains and subdomains are going to be listed alphabetically and you'll be able to see and modify the A and/or MX records for any of them. If you wish to use a different email provider and they ask you to create more MX records than the standard 2, it's not going to take more than a few mouse clicks either to add them. You can also set different latency for these records and the lower the latency, the greater the priority a certain MX record will have. The propagation of any record that you change or set up isn't 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 indicates how long a record will stay active after it's changed or deleted.

Custom MX and A Records in Semi-dedicated Servers

If you buy a semi-dedicated server plan through our company, you'll be able to view and change the A and MX records for each of the domain names or subdomains that you host inside the account. The Hepsia CP, which you'll get to handle the account, comes with an innovative, although easy-to-use tool where all hosts will be listed in alphabetical order and you will be able to modify their records with no more than a couple of mouse clicks. If you have to set up a new record, it will be equally simple - select the domain/subdomain, enter the IP address or mail server record and you'll be ready. You will also be able to set different priority for the MX records which you create in case you want to use a third-party email provider and they ask you to set up additional records besides the two standard ones. If you experience any difficulties, we have a detailed Help section with videos where you can see first-hand how to setup or modify any record.