The term “hosting” doesn't describe a single service, but several services which offer a variety of functions to a domain address. Having a website and emails, for instance, are two separate services though in the general case they come together, so a lot of people see them as one single service. Actually, every domain has a couple of DNS records called A and MX, which show the server that handles each specific service - the former is a numeric IP address, which specifies where the website for the domain name is loaded from, while the second one is an alphanumeric string, which shows the server that handles the emails for the domain name. For instance, an A record is 123.123.123.123 and an MX record is mx1.domain.com. Each time you open a site or send an email, 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. When you have custom records on their end, the web browser request or the e-mail will be forwarded to the correct server. The idea behind working with 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 Web Hosting

If you have a web hosting through us, you will be able to view, set up and modify any A or MX record for your domains. Provided that a given Internet domain has our Name Servers, you'll be able to modify certain records by using our Hepsia hosting CP and have your site or emails directed to another company if you wish to use only one of our services. Our sophisticated tool will even permit you to have a domain hosted here and a subdomain below it to be hosted elsewhere by modifying only its A record - this will not affect the main domain address in any way. If you decide to use the e-mail services of a different service provider and they want you to create more than two MX records, you can easily do it with just a few mouse clicks within the DNS Records section of your Control Panel. You can even set different latency for each MX record i.e. which one is going to have priority.

Custom MX and A Records in Semi-dedicated Servers

If you acquire a semi-dedicated server plan through us, you'll be able to see and update the A and MX records for each of the domain names or subdomains which you host within the account. The Hepsia CP, which you will get to take care of the account, provides an advanced, albeit easy-to-use tool where all hosts are going to be listed in alphabetical order and you're going to be able to change their records with no more than a couple of clicks. If you have to set up a new record, it'll be just as easy - pick the domain/subdomain, enter the IP address or mail server record and you are going to be ready. You will also be able to set different priority for the MX records that you create in case you choose to use a third-party email provider and they ask you to set up additional records apart from the two default ones. If you encounter any troubles, we've got a detailed Help section with videos where you can see first-hand how to create or modify any record.