The term “hosting” does not describe just one service, but a number of services that offer different functions to a domain. Having a website and e-mails, as an example, are two independent services although in the general case they come together, so most people see them as one single service. In fact, each and every domain name has a several DNS records called A and MX, which show the server that deals with each particular service - the first one is a numeric IP address, which specifies where the website for the domain is loaded from, while the latter is an alphanumeric string, which shows the server that deals with the emails for the domain. As an illustration, an A record can be 123.123.123.123 and an MX record can be mx1.domain.com. Every time you open a site or send an e-mail, the global DNS servers are contacted to check the name servers that a Internet domain has and the traffic/message is first directed to that company. If you have custom records on their end, the browser request or the e-mail will be forwarded to the correct server. The concept behind using separate records is that the two services employ different web protocols and you can have your website hosted by one service provider and the emails by another.
Custom MX and A Records in Semi-dedicated Servers
Accessing and modifying the A or MX records for any of your domain names or subdomains is extremely easy if you get a semi-dedicated server plan through us. The accounts are handled using our in-house built Hepsia Control Panel, which features a section committed to the DNS records of your domain names. The latter is going to be listed alphabetically and you could click on each of them to see both the A and the MX records. Modifying any record will be as easy as entering the new one in a text box and saving the change, so in case you have never dealt with such matters before, you will not experience any troubles if you want to switch your website or emails to a different provider while keeping the second service with our company. If required, you can also create additional MX records and set a specific priority depending on the recommendations of the new provider.