The definition of “hosting” does not describe just one service, but several services which offer a variety of functions to a domain. Having a website and e-mails, as an example, are two individual services even though in the general case they come together, so most people think of them as one single service. In fact, every single domain has a several DNS records called A and MX, which show the server that manages each particular service - the first one is a numeric IP address, which defines where the website for the domain name is loaded from, while the second one is an alphanumeric string, which shows the server that manages the emails for the domain address. For example, an A record can be 123.123.123.123 and an MX record is mx1.domain.com. Every time you open a website 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. In case you have custom records on their end, the browser request or the e-mail will be directed to the correct server. The idea behind employing separate records is that the two services employ different web protocols and you can have your website hosted by one provider and the emails by another.

Custom MX and A Records in Semi-dedicated Hosting

The Hepsia hosting Control Panel, which comes with our Linux semi-dedicated hosting, will enable you to see the A and MX records for any of the domains or subdomains in your account and if needed, to edit any of them or create new ones. Managing these records is very easy as all domains/subdomains are going to be listed alphabetically, so modifying a record is as simple as entering it in a box and saving the change. Setting up a new one takes just a couple of more clicks and if you experience any troubles, you can check out our educational videos on how to set up A and MX records. Our system is intuitive enough to be used by people with little or no previous experience, yet advanced enough to offer you full control of all records and to permit you to have different A records even for domain.com and www.domain.com. If you're pointing your e-mails to a different service provider and they ask you to set up more than two different MX records, you may choose the priority of each one.