Creating a CNAME record for any one of the domains or subdomains that you've got in the hosting account will enable you to forward it to a different domain/subdomain. The forwarded domain address will lose all its records - A, MX and so forth, and will take the records of the domain it is being directed to. In this light, you cannot set up a CNAME record to direct your domain name to a third-party company and retain a working e-mail service with the first hosting company. Also, it is important to note that a CNAME record is always a string of words and never a number because it is often confused with the A record of the domain being forwarded. One of the main uses of a CNAME record is to direct a domain name which you own through one provider to the servers of another provider when you have set up an Internet site with the latter. That way, the Internet site will appear under your own domain, not under some subdomain provided by the third-party company.