Every registered domain name has at least 2 Name Server records that show where it's hosted i.e. by using these records you direct your domain to the servers of a particular hosting provider. This way, you've got both your site and your emails handled by the same provider. On the lower level of the Domain Name System (DNS), nevertheless, there are lots of other records, for instance A and MX. The former reveals which server handles the website for a given Internet domain and is always an IP address (123.123.123.123), while the latter reveals which server handles the emails and is always an alphanumeric string (mx1.domain.com). As an example, when you type a domain name in your browser, your request is sent through the global DNS system to the company whose NS records the domain address uses and from there you may be directed to the servers of a different company provided you have set an IP address of the latter as an A record for your domain address. Having independent records for the website and the emails means you can have your website and your emails with two different providers if you would like.
Custom MX and A Records in Shared Web Hosting
If you have a shared web hosting account through our company and you would like to direct either your site or your emails to an alternative service provider, it is going to take you literally just 2 mouse clicks to do this. Our Hepsia CP provides an easy-to-use DNS Records tool, where all your domain names and subdomains will be listed alphabetically and you will be able to see and edit the A and/or MX records for any of them. If you choose to use a different email provider and they ask you to set up more MX records than the default two, it is not going to take more than a few clicks either to add them. You can also set different latency for these records and the lower the latency, the bigger the priority a particular MX record will have. The propagation of any record that you change or create won't take more than several hours and if needed, you'll also be able to set the so-called Time-To-Live value, which shows how long a record will remain active after it is modified or deleted.