Setting up a CNAME record for each of the domain names or subdomains you have in the hosting account will allow you to direct it to a different domain/subdomain. The forwarded domain will lose all of its records - A, MX etc, and will take the records of the domain address it is being pointed to. In this light, you cannot set up a CNAME record to redirect your domain name to a third-party provider and retain a working e-mail service with the first hosting provider. Also, it is important to note that a CNAME record is always a string of words rather than a number because it is commonly confused with the A record of the Internet domain being redirected. One of the major uses of a CNAME record is to point a domain address which you own through one company to the servers of another company if you have created a site with the latter. This way, the Internet site will appear under your own domain address, not under some subdomain provided by the third-party provider.