When you add a domain name as hosted in some account, you normally set a pair of Name Servers to direct it to that particular service provider. On their end, 3 records are set up automatically the moment the domain is added - one A record and two MX records. The former is a numeric address, or IP address, which “tells” the domain where its website is, while the other two are alphanumeric and they show the server that handles the e-mails for that specific domain address. The website and the e-mail hosting are often regarded as one thing, when they are actually two different services. Having separate records for them will permit you to have them with different providers if you'd like. As an illustration, some new company might have exceptional uptime for your site, but you may not want to switch your e-mails from your current host and by employing an A record to point the domain name to the first and MX records to have the e-mails with the second, you can get the best of both companies. These records are checked whenever you want to open a site or send an email - in either case, the service provider whose name servers are used for the Internet domain will be contacted to retrieve the A and MX records and if you've set records different from their own, the correct web/mail server will then be contacted and you'll see the needed website or your email is going to be delivered.