Ignore the DNS settings from my hosting provider?

Question

I'm not really sure this is possible (or how to explain it properly)...

My hosting provider is Bluehost My Domain Registar of choice is Hover

For email I use google apps. What I would like to do, is be able to set up my DNS settings, for email and google apps through Hover and have it ignore the settings in Bluehost. From what I'm reading it doesn't seem like this is possible because my namesevers point to bluehost. My question is: is there any way to do what I'm saying or no? And if it's totally not possible, is there a better/different solution out there that I could research.

PS - The reason for this is because I'd like to be able to leave Bluehost, but I'm realizing that it will be a hassle to move a bunch of domains and all their DNS records, it would be easier if I could set all that stuff up in one place and change hosts easily.

Answer 1

You can use a third party DNS provider (hurricane.net is one). I kind of look at this as three levels: you have your registrar (who registered your domain name, thus, who you use to point your nameservers), DNS, and then Hosting (files).

If you host your DNS on a third party, you'll just have to copy the records you have currently set on Bluehost over to said third party. Then change the nameservers to point to your new DNS provider. Wah-lah, works.

Now, when you plan to jump, make sure a few days before this happens you change the TTL to ... oh, 5-30 minutes. That way when you have to change the IP to your new address (where the files are going to be hosted), you'll have minimal down time.

Answer 2

Hover has a tutorial that shows how to modify your name servers.