---
title: "How to Set DNS Records for 3rd Party Services"
description: "In this article, we'll go over how you can modify your domain's DNS records, in order to split up your various services between multiple hosting providers. In most cases, the average website owner..."
url: https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/edu/cpanel/change-dns-records-to-use-3rd-party-services/
date: 2012-12-31
modified: 2021-11-04
author: "Scott Mitchell"
categories: ["cPanel", "DNS and Nameserver Changes"]
type: post
lang: en
---

# How to Set DNS Records for 3rd Party Services

![Learn How to Set DNS Records for 3rd Party Services](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/How-to-Set-DNS-Records-for-3rd-Party-Services-1024x538.png)

In this article, we’ll go over how you can modify your domain’s DNS records, in order to split up your various services between multiple hosting providers.

In most cases, the average website owner will have all of their web services with one hosting provider. In some cases though, you might want to split up your services so that you have one provider actually host your website and a completely separate provider to host your email.

In order to follow any of the steps below, you’ll need to have your domain name [pointed at our name servers](/support/domain-names/changing-your-domains-nameservers/), so that any DNS changes you make in cPanel on our server is what your domain actually uses.

- [Website Hosted by 3rd Party With Email at InMotion](#website-with-inmotion)
- [Website Hosted by InMotion With Email at 3rd party](#website-with-3rdparty)

![How to Use your Domain with Third Party Services (2 of 2)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/2u3zRvX6V14/maxresdefault.webp)

*Don’t have time to read our full article? Watch our walk-through video.*

## Website Hosted by 3rd Party With Email Hosted by InMotion

A common example of this is if you’re using a website hosting company that has a proprietary website builder but doesn’t host email. So if you looked for a new web host and found InMotion Hosting, your plan might be to slowly transition your website over to non-proprietary website software with us, and in the meantime also have us host your email.

In the steps below, we’ll walk through using an example domain **PrimaryDomain.com**. Where we would like to continue to have the e-mail hosted by InMotion Hosting, but we want to point our DNS **A (Address)** record to another website host where you might already have your site built.

1. [Login to your cPanel](/support/edu/cpanel/how-to-log-into-cpanel/).
2. Under the *Domains* section, click on **Zone Editor**![Click on DNS Zone](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/domains_change-dns-for-3rd-party_01-click-dns-zone.png)
3. Locate the domain you’d like to modify in the list and click on the **Manage** option.![Find domain and click manage](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/domains_change-dns-for-3rd-party_02-click-manage.png)
4. In this example, the DNS records are already set up pointing to InMotion’s servers for all of the services. The only thing we need to modify is our **A (Address)** record of the website. Click on **Edit** beside the* primarydomain.com* entry.![click on edit beside domain a record](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/domains_change-dns-for-3rd-party_03-click-edit.png)
5. Fill in the IP address of your remote website host in the **Record** field, then click on **Save Record**.![fill in remote host ip address for website a record](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/domains_change-dns-for-3rd-party_04-save-new-ip.png)

Anytime you make DNS changes, it can take between 24-48 hours for those DNS settings to fully propagate across the web. Your website will not start immediately pulling from this new IP address, and it will take a different amount of time depending on several factors.

1. You should now see the new **A** record you updated. Now click on **Edit** beside the **CNAME** record for **mail.primarydomain.com**.![delete mail cname record](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/domains_change-dns-for-3rd-party_05-click-edit.png)
2. Change the **Type** from *CNAME* to *A* and enter the InMotion server’s IP address in the **Record** field. You can always [find your IP address in cPanel](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/website/how-to-find-your-shared-ip-address-of-your-server-in-cpanel/). Once done, click **Save Record**.![add mail a record](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/domains_change-dns-for-3rd-party_06-enter-new-data.png)
3. Next, locate the MX record for the domain and click on the **Edit** link.![click on mx entry](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/domains_change-dns-for-3rd-party_05a-edit-mx.png)
4. Now, edit the record change the **Record** field by changing it from *primarydomain.com* to *mail.primarydomain.com*. Click **Save Record** to save the changes.![click on edit mx record](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/domains_change-dns-for-3rd-party_07-edit-save.png)

## Website Hosted by InMotion With Email Hosted by 3rd Party

A common example of this is if you’d like to host your website with InMotion Hosting, but you have email services with another provider such as Google Apps for your domain.

In the steps below, we’ll walk through using an example domain **PrimaryDomain.com**. Where we would like to continue to have the website hosted by InMotion Hosting, but we want to point our DNS **MX (Mail Exchange)** record to another email host.

1. [Login to your cPanel](/support/edu/cpanel/how-to-log-into-cpanel/).
2. Under the **Domains** section, click on Zone Editor.
3. Locate the domain you’d like to modify in the list and click on the **Manage** option.![Find domain and click manage](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/domains_change-dns-for-3rd-party_02-click-manage.png)
4. Next, locate the MX record for the domain and click on the **Delete** link.![click on delete for MX record](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/domains_change-dns-for-3rd-party_08-delete-mx.png)
5. A confirmation popup will appear. Click **Continue**.![click on mx entry](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/domains_change-dns-for-3rd-party_09-click-continue.png)
6. At the top of the screen, click on **Add Record** and then click the **Add MX Record** option.![click on mx entry](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/domains_change-dns-for-3rd-party_10-create-mx.png)
7. In the **Add New Record** section, you’ll want to set the **Priority** and **Destination** for your 3rd party mail service, then click on **Save Record**. You may need to create more than one *MX* record for your email service. If you use Google, for example, would need to create five records with the following information: Priority Destination 1 ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM 5 ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM 5 ALT2.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM 10 ASPMX2.GOOGLEMAIL.COM 10 ASPMX3.GOOGLEMAIL.COM Once saved, the **MX Records** will appear in the records list.
8. Return to your main cPanel screen, locate the *Email* category, and click on the **Email Routing** icon.![click email routing icon](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/domains_change-dns-for-3rd-party_11-click-email-routing.png)
9. Select your domain from the dropdown list.![select domain from dropdown](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/domains_change-dns-for-3rd-party_12-select-domain.png)
10. Click on the **Remote Mail Exchanger** option.![select remote option](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/domains_change-dns-for-3rd-party_13-select-remote.png)
11. Click the **Change** button.![click change](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/domains_change-dns-for-3rd-party_14-click-change.png)

Anytime you make DNS changes, it can take between 24-48 hours for those DNS settings to fully propagate. So your email will not start immediately delivering to these new remote MX servers.

You should now understand how to split up your domain’s various services by using DNS records. While this typically isn’t needed for the average user, it might be good to know that you do have this option available to you.