Having full control over your domain names is something really crucial and being able to access and edit the DNS records for each of them is one of the things you should look for when you search for a registration or a web hosting provider. You may have heard of the so-called “name servers” that show where a domain is hosted, but below them there's a whole list of records, like the A record, which is the IP address of the server hosting the website, and the MX records, which show the server that handles the e-mails for a certain domain. These records are employed if you want to have your web site with one service provider and the e-mails with another, for instance. Additionally you can use a domain address for a non-website service or forward the traffic to it by using special records. Many companies ask for an extra fee to provide access to edit specific DNS records besides the name servers.