The term “hosting” does not describe one service, but several services that provide numerous functions to a domain address. Having a website and emails, as an example, are two separate services though in the general case they come together, so most people consider them as one single service. The truth is, each domain name has a couple of DNS records called A and MX, which show the server that manages each specific service - the first one is a numeric IP address, that defines where the site for the domain is loaded from, while the second one is an alphanumeric string, which shows the server that manages the e-mails for the domain address. As an example, an A record is 123.123.123.123 and an MX record would be mx1.domain.com. Every time 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 forwarded to that company. When you have custom records on their end, the browser request or the e-mail will then be directed to the correct server. The idea behind employing separate records is that the two services use different web protocols and you can have your website hosted by one provider and the e-mail messages 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 switch either your website or your emails to another company, it'll take you literally simply two clicks to do so. Our Hepsia Control Panel offers an easy-to-use DNS Records tool, where all your domain names and subdomains are going to be listed alphabetically and you're going to be able to see and change the A and/or MX records for any of them. If you wish to use a different email provider and they ask you to set up more MX records than the default two, it will not take more than a couple of clicks either to add them. You can also set different latency for these records and the lower the latency, the greater the priority a particular MX record will have. The propagation of each record that you change or create 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, which shows how long a record will stay active after it's changed or deleted.
Custom MX and A Records in Semi-dedicated Servers
If you acquire a semi-dedicated server plan from our company, you'll be able to view and change the A and MX records for any one of the domains or subdomains which you host within the account. The Hepsia CP, which you will get to control the account, provides an sophisticated, albeit easy-to-use tool in which all hosts will be listed in alphabetical order and you are going to be able to change their records with no more than a couple of mouse clicks. If you have to set up a new record, it will be just as easy - select the domain/subdomain, type in the IP address or mail server record and you will be all set. You will also be able to set different priority for the MX records that you create in case you decide to use a third-party email provider and they ask you to set up additional records besides the two standard ones. If you ever encounter any issues, we've got a detailed Help section with videos in which you can see first-hand how to setup or change any record.