I want to Host a website with BC but host the email with Fasthost, is that possible?

Hi Martin. 

Yes this is no problem but first you need to understand the hierarchy governing DNS management.

At its most basic level, the chain of command looks like this.

1. Domain Name Registrar

• yourdomainsname.com

2. Authoritative Name Servers

• NS1
• NS2

3. DNS Zone File:

• A records. 
• MX records. 
• CName Records
• TXT records.

To clarify...

1. The Registrar where you registered your domain provides you access to a management panel. 

2. From the domain management level you can specify the "Authoritative Name Servers".  Your registrar will have probably assigned its own name-servers by default but you can "delegate" these to any other service if you wish to. The records will look something like this:

• NS1.yourhostregistry.com
• NS2.yourhostregistry.com

As the name suggests, "Authoritative" Name Servers are in charge of your DNS management and everything your domain name does will ultimately begin with the rules you have specified on the Name Servers.  e.g. If you want to send web traffic to another server that hosts your website, or send email traffic to a different server that hosts your email, or, send blog visitors to a different server that hosts your blog, then these "records" need to be created on the Authoritative Name Servers.  This is called a DNS Zone File. 

3. The zone file will contain various records for various purposes. The primary record types to be aware of are: A, MX, CName, and TXT.

• "A" records are used to point web traffic to the web server hosting your website plus other hosted services. "A" records are specified using the IP address of the server. e.g. your root domain might specify A = 54.236.189.64.  You may also have other A records for sub-domains e.g. "www".yourdomain.com could point to the same host sever as your root domain or somewhere else completely. You might also have "blog".yourdomain.com pointing to a different server where you host your blog.

• "MX" records are used to direct email traffic to the email servers you use. MX records are specified using the fully qualified domain of the email host e.g. mx.mailhost.com. Or it may be mail.yourdomain.com with a corresponding A record for "mail." pointing to the IP address of the mail server.

• "CName" records are used to create alias subdomains. e.g. You could specify "www" as an alias that resolve to your root domain.

• "TXT" records are used to assign additional rules such as SPF (Send Policy Framework) to authorize how your domain may be used for sending email to help prevent it being used as a spam identity.

That's the basic architecture.   One thing to note: If your name servers also host your website and email then the additional records will exist by default. 

e.g. If you want to use BC for both your site and email then at the domain registry you would simple set your name servers to be:

• ns1.businesscatalyst.com
• ns2.businesscatalyst.com

The rest would happen automatically.

Now to deal with your query.

You want to use BC for your website and your previous host for your email (I will assume your previous host is also where your domain is registered). To achieve this you have 2 choices.

1. Delegate the name servers to BC and create a MX record in your DNS file on BC to specify your email host. (more info here)

  or

2. Leave the name servers defaulting to the registry and create a DNS A record to point to BC for your website. (more info here)

Either option will resolve your issue.

Andy