The definition of “hosting” doesn't describe one service, but a variety of services which offer various functions to a domain name. Having a website and e-mails, for example, are two separate services though in the general case they come together, so a lot of 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 deals with each specific service - the first one is a numeric IP address, which identifies where the website for the domain address is loaded from, while the second one is an alphanumeric string, which shows the server that deals with the e-mails for the domain name. For example, an A record can be 123.123.123.123 and an MX record is mx1.domain.com. Whenever you open a website or send an email, 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. In case you have custom records on their end, the web browser request or the email will be forwarded to the correct server. The reasoning behind using separate records is that the two services work with different web protocols and you may have your website hosted by one company and the e-mails by another.

Custom MX and A Records in Website Hosting

If you have a website hosting account with our company and you would like to direct either your website or your e-mails to another provider, it is going to take you literally only two clicks to do so. Our Hepsia CP offers an easy-to-use DNS Records tool, where all your domain names and subdomains will be listed alphabetically and you are going to be able to see and modify the A and/or MX records for any of them. If you want to use a different e-mail provider and they ask you to set up more MX records than the default two, it will not take more than a few mouse clicks either to add them. You can even set different latency for these records and the lower the latency, the bigger the priority a given MX record is going to have. The propagation of every record that you modify or set up will not take more than a few hours and if necessary, you will also be able to set the so-called Time-To-Live value, that indicates how long a record will remain active after it is changed or deleted.

Custom MX and A Records in Semi-dedicated Servers

If you purchase a semi-dedicated server plan through our company, you will be able to view and change the A and MX records for any one of the domain addresses or subdomains you host in the account. The Hepsia Control Panel, which you'll get to handle the account, comes with an sophisticated, albeit easy-to-use tool where all hosts are going to be listed in alphabetical order and you are going to be able to modify their records with no more than several mouse clicks. If you have to create a new record, it will be just as easy - select the domain/subdomain, enter the IP address or mail server record and you are going to be all set. Additionally, you will be able to set different priority for the MX records you create in case you decide to use a third-party e-mail provider and they ask you to create additional records other than the 2 standard ones. If you ever encounter any difficulties, we have a detailed Help section with videos in which you can see first-hand how to setup or change any record.