CompanyA's hosting service is dead basic and just hasn't got what I need, so I'm looking at moving hosts for the site. CompanyA, however, does have a very nice email service, so I intend to keep using them for our email, using an MX directive from the new host.
CompanyA has also informed me that, while they will be able to handle our email for us, if the website hosting is moved to another company they can no longer be our registrar.
So, the new scenario will be:
CompanyA still handles email.
CompanyB is new domain registrar.
CompanyC is new website host.
Questions - what sort of delays might I expect with each of these changes?
1 Transfer as domain registrar from CompanyA to CompanyB. I assume this wouldn't interrupt either website or email functionality?
2 Transfer of website hosting from CompanyA to CompanyC. I will, of course, have a duplicate site set up at the new host prior to the DNS update. Assuming CompanyA also keeps the site up on their server through this transition period, would we have uninterrupted website access?
3 Assume that when the website hosting is transfered I already have an MX directive in place at CompanyC (the new host) to point email back to CompanyA's email servers. Would there be any interruption to email functionality through the DNS update period - or after for that matter?
From what I've read the MX record has to go out and propogate just like an ordinary DNS update. In this instance I think the change would be effectively moot though, as it would just be pointing back to where email has always been served from previously, or are we going to have to deal with a trickle down effect as first the DNS servers update and then the MX updates later?
Website downtime I can deal with. Email downtime is going to be a real bone of contention.
Thanks for your help
There are various ways you can do this, but I would suggest the following.
Can we assume that Company B will be the DNS Manager for this name as well?
Let's say the name is currently on ns1 and ns2.companya.com and will be moved to ns1 and ns2.companyb.com
Step 1. Upload site to Company C. Change A and CNAME records on ns1 and ns2.companya.com via Company A to point the name to the Company C servers.
Step 2. Add these records to the DNS of Company B. So that before you transfer the name over, ns1 and ns2.companyb.com has the records pointing to Company C for the hosting and back to Company A for the MX records.
Step 3. Dig the servers to make sure the name is setup at Company B, and then transfer the name across when you are happy.
It's often best to wait 48 hours between changes made on the DNS so that it propagates globally.
Good luck.
Amos
The only problem is that CompanyA are saying they can't/won't as registrar point to another host, even very temporarily... so I'll have to move the registrar before I can move the hosting. Gotta love those guys.
Hopefully it'll all go fairly smoothly.
