Moving a domain between servers with the same host with no downtime.

Special case. How do I avoid downtime.

[lgn1]

I am switching my website from an old server to a new server with 1&1, and they require you do delete the old server DNS info before adding a new server, and this take 24 hours for the delete, and 4-8 hours for the DNS to propagate, on the new server best case scenerio.

I can't have my website down for 24-48 hours, as this will cost me plenty in loss sales.

Normally you can do this with no downtime because you are moving between hosts, and you can have both hosts up and running, and the user DNS will point either at the old and progressivly more often at the new. After 72 hours, you drop the old site. Unfortunately it does not work this way with 1&1 when you have an external registered domain.

The only thing I can think of is to setup my own nameserver to point to the new domain, login to my domain registrar and move the name server entry to my own nameserver, which will be pointing to the website on the new server, and then after 48 hours drop the old site with 1&1, then wait for there Nameserver to point to the right address, then wait another 48 hours to drop my nameserver (after pointing domain to 1&1 nameserver)

Seems rather convuluted, esecially setting up your own nameserver. Any ideas to simplify this?

[bwnbwn]

Are you using the host DNS service? If your are it is time to manage your own DNS.
Move the site over to the new server set your own DNS to point to the new IP address and then change the name servers in your register to the new dns.

Leave the other site up for a week or until all activity has ceased to that server then delete it from the old server.

You do NOT want to just take it down and delete it this can case serious issues with the SE's and your organic listings.

It is highly recommened you manage your own DNS anyway for many reasons and now is the time to do it.