DNS is used to control and manage Domain Name settings. If you have DNS control or if your domain provider or hosting provider provides with DNS management then you can configure your domain easily depending on up to what level of control you have.
With DNS control, you can use URL Forwarding, URL Redirection, URL Masking, A records, CNAME records, MX records etc.
Now, many times it happens that we don’t have DNS control with us. It is possible when your Domain provider doesn’t give you the control (though many provide these days for free and some charge for it), your hosting provider doesn’t let you have the control or hosting provider lets you have limited control. Some other issues come when you want to set up email service for your domain name like on Google Apps..what happens is that some hosting providers will let you have enter IP addresses only and in the case of Mail implementation on Google Apps you need to configure MX records.
Question that comes here is..How to do it? Is it possible?
and the answer that comes here is – Yes, it is possible.
If we take the case of domain provider, then either the domain provider charges you extra for activating DNS control (some or full control) or they do it on request. In cases when they charge you extra..you don’t want to spend those extra bucks..right! (If you own just one or two domains you can pay..but if you own many domains and then it could be a large saving. But still Why Pay??).
How to Save these bucks??
Change your Domain Provider..Well, it would take time and you need to have some knowledge.
or
try out by having DNS control from some other site. This could be done by pointing your Nameservers to these Free and Cheap DNS control providers.
There are some such DNS control providers. If you search on web, you will find names like Zoneedit.com, DNSExit.com, EveryDNS.net, NameCheap.com, domainmanager.com, dyndns.com etc.
Create an account on these sites and it is easy to control your domain name.
In case of hosting provider, you need to point nameservers as above. Now, you can access your hosting by creating A record. In this field you need to put IP address which you can take from your hosting provider.
How to configure Mail for Google Apps while domain points to hosting?
Step 1: Create an account on these DNS control sites.
Step 2: Change Namerserver at your Domain Provider to the DNS control site’s Nameserver that you are going to use
Step 3: Create an A record with yourdomainname.tld and www.yourdomainname.tld with IP Address (get IP Address from Hosting Provider)
Step 4: Add MX records for Google Apps (MX records can be found out in Email Settings in Google Apps admin panel)
Step 5: Wait for Nameserver propagation, it might take up to 72 hours.