Forum Moderators: phranque
mysite.co.uk is hosted by widgets.co.uk. They also handle the registration of mysite.co.uk such that the IPS TAG = WIDGETS
I want to change this to:
mysite.co.uk is still hosted by widgets.co.uk but the registration of mysite.co.uk is done by newwidgets.co.uk IPS TAG = NEWWIDGETS
The reason for doing this is so that it makes it easier when changing server hosts. If I change hosts, I don't have to wait anxiously for the exiting hosts to update the IPS TAG - I can do it myself via newwidgets control panel.
Will there be much (if any) downtime when doing this?
On the new agents site the procedure is:
The Transfer Process
1. Ask the current TAG holder to change the TAG to NEWWIDGETS.
2. Once the TAG has been changed login to your members area of newwidgets.co.uk.
3. Click on Transfer Domains to newwidgets.co.uk.
4. Enter the domain name you wish to transfer in the box provided.
5. Complete the current host box.
It's the downtime I'm worried about. Will the server be unavailable for any length of time? An hour or two is fine but is this something that can go wrong such that the site is in limbo for a few days?
Any idea? Are we talking hours or days for something like this to be actioned?
What you are trying to do is not unusual, and from my experience almost all the web sites I have dealt with have a registrar/agent different from their hosts.
As far how long it would take very much depends on the two registrars/agents exchanging the information.
The registrars/agents I deal with have several "protective" measures in place so illegal transfers cannot be done.
Real life example:
Transfering domain from ABC to XYZ.
* I initiate the transfer from XYZ
* XYZ sends all contacts on the domain a notice.
* From contact e-mail approval is sent to XYZ
* XYZ sends a transfer request to ABC
* ABC sends all contacts on the domain a notice.
* From contact e-mail approval is sent to ABC
* ABC sends a transfer approval to XYZ
* XYZ begins the actual transfer
* Transfer complete
Now for the second part of your question - no it should NOT effect your domain access.
The reason is because you are not changing your DNS. The DNS is the lookup database, the registrar simply holds the "contact information". Once the transfer is complete you can change the DNS too if you wish.
I've changed .com's before but not a .co.uk (except when moving host at the same time).
I'm just concerned that about the process of 'releasing the IPS TAG' and the delay in the new agents entering that on their system may mean that the site is unavailable for some time.
The IPS TAG has nothing to do with where a domain resolves. The IPS TAG is nominets way of knowing what tag holder the domain belogs to. The tag holder is the only entity allowed to make changes to dns, update contact details etc for the domain.
If the IPS tag takes 2 weeks to transfer it just means you will have to contact your current agent for that two weeks if you need to make any changes to your domain/dns.
Cheers.
5 years ago the site was actually hosted by newwidgets. Now that I have moved the registration back to them their system seems to have detected this old record and has changed all the DNS settings back to that old server - argh!
I guess the system should have picked up the current DNS settings and set their control panel to the same, but as I was a customer from 5 years ago they've used those settings.
I have now put the settings to what I think it should be as on nic.uk but I'm worried that the auto setting of the 5 year old data has already rippled around the internet and that some users may now be going to a totally different IP address.
