Nrthugu

Not sure how to word the title.

I am in this situation...

I have had a website for a long time now where the domain name and hosting are managed by OVH. A few years ago, I setup the email service through Protonmail with a custom domain. To do this, I changed some things in the DNS Zone so that emails will be routed through Protonmail. I would have to go back and look at exactly what needed changed...

Now however, I am becoming unhappy with the hosting provided by OVH, so I would like to try out another host. The issue is that to switch hosts, I could either

1. Transfer the domain to another provider, and then setup the email from scratch.




2. Switch the nameservers at OVH to point to hosting somewhere else (e.g. A2Hosting).

I would prefer to take the second option, since this would allow me to try out a different host without having to reconfigure my email. If I like the host, then I would probably move everything over to them. But I simply don't know if it is feasible. So is this possible? And if so, how would I do it?

I am worried that if I just switch the nameservers at the host, then my email would be offline.

You are right, if you change the name servers you will not be able to receive mails (unless you configure the MX records at the new provider). In you case you can simply create 2 A records pointing the root domain (example.com) and * (which is for all subdomains, that don't have their own records, so www.example.com and something.example.com will work, as long as there are no other records for them).

For more information about the records configuration you better ask your new host.

And when you are happy with the new hosting you can change the name servers or transfer the domain or do whatever you want. Note that the web host, the domain registrar and the DNS host may be from different providers, it's not a must to have all the services at one place.