The word “hosting” doesn't describe one service, but a set of services which offer numerous functions to a domain. Having a website and e-mails, as an illustration, are two individual services although in the general case they come together, so many people think of them as one single service. In fact, every domain has a couple of DNS records called A and MX, which show the server that manages each particular service - the former is a numeric IP address, which specifies where the site for the domain address is loaded from, while the second one is an alphanumeric string, which shows the server that handles the emails for the domain name. For example, an A record would be 123.123.123.123 and an MX record would be mx1.domain.com. Whenever you open a website or send an e-mail, the global DNS servers are contacted to check the name servers that a domain has and the traffic/message is first forwarded to that company. If you have custom records on their end, the Internet browser request or the e-mail will then be sent to the correct server. The reasoning behind working with separate records is that the two services work with different web protocols and you could have your website hosted by one company and the emails by another.
Custom MX and A Records in Hosting
If you have a hosting account with our company and you want to switch either your website or your e-mails to another service provider, it'll take you literally just 2 mouse clicks to do it. Our Hepsia CP comes with 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 won't take more than a few mouse clicks either to add them. You could also set different latency for these records and the lower the latency, the bigger the priority a certain MX record is going to have. The propagation of any record that you modify or create is not going to take more than a few hours and if necessary, you'll also be able to set the so-called Time-To-Live value, that shows how long a record will stay active after it is modified or deleted.
Custom MX and A Records in Semi-dedicated Servers
If you purchase a semi-dedicated server plan from us, you will be able to view and update the A and MX records for every one of the domain names or subdomains which you host in the account. The Hepsia CP, which you will get to handle the account, offers an innovative, albeit easy-to-use tool where all hosts will be listed in alphabetical order and you are going to be able to change their records with no more than several mouse clicks. If you have to create a new record, it's going to be just as simple - pick the domain/subdomain, type in the IP address or mail server record and you will be ready. You will also be able to set different priority for the MX records which you create in case you choose to use a third-party e-mail provider and they ask you to set up additional records apart from the 2 standard ones. If you ever encounter any difficulties, we have a comprehensive Help section with videos where you can see first-hand how to setup or modify any record.