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I have a domain name with a registrar that does not offer hosting. So far I've just been using ImprovMX to forward emails to a gmail account. I would like to continue doing this, but now I would also like to set up a webpage. My understanding is that to set up the webpage I need to purchase hosting, then change the DNS name server setting with the registrar to the host's name server. But if I do that I will lose my ImprovMX email forwarding right? How can I have both?

Will the host give me an option to configure my email forwarding on their server? Or should I keep using the name server on the registrar and just add an A record pointing to the host?

knickers
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  • From a technical perspective you don't need to use your web hosting providers name servers to host your website there. If your current domain registrar allows you to modify your DNS records, you only need to create and/or update the records you want to use, for example `www.example.com` record, to point to the web server(s) that will be running your website. From a commercial and operational perspective many hosting providers prefer that you use their name servers, as that allows them to easily make DNS changes when they make changes in their web hosting infrastructure and can charge more – Bob Feb 19 '21 at 14:34
  • Ok I see. Is the IP of the webserver likely to change? – knickers Feb 19 '21 at 15:02
  • Also, will this work with shared hosting? – knickers Feb 19 '21 at 15:07
  • Yes, it will, this actually the way shared hostings work at all. – Nikita Kipriyanov Feb 19 '21 at 18:07

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There are 3 aspects of your setup:

  1. Your domain registrar e.g. GoDaddy, Gandi, etc. - They offer for free to host your NS (name servers). This means that you don't need to change your NS servers to your web hosting provider. In your domain registrar panel, you would have to create the following records:

  2. MX records - pointing to ImprovMX SMTP servers as described here: https://improvmx.com/guides/configure-your-dns/

  3. A record (or in addition CNAME, but I don't want to make it complicated) - this record has to point to the IP (not to FQDN) address of your web hosting server.

In this way you will be able to control your DNS records straight from your domain registrar control panel and this is a good thing.

basekat
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