Changing hosts but not name servers…

[monsteruk]

My site is currently hosted in a “shared site” scenario, where my site is only one of 90 sites hosted on that server (all with the same IP). I am anxious to move the site to a dedicated server (which I have already have). However, I am more than happy with the “email service” etc. I am currently receiving from my current host (it allows me to concentrate on the website without worrying about providing or setting up a mail server).

What I intended to do was to move the site onto the new dedicated server and then logon to my old host and simply edit the WWW DNS record to point to the IP address of my new dedicated server (and leave everything else the same). This way, the name servers, email service etc. are all provided by the old host, I have just changed the DNS to point the web server to my new machine (hosted elsewhere).

I have been warned by my existing host that I will be penalised by the search engines if I do this, as the search engines will detect that the IP address of the name servers and realise they are on a different IP range to the web server (my dedicated server hosted elsewhere).

My question is this…. Is the above true? Would I get penalised by the likes of google for having the name servers and email etc. with one host, and the actual website hosted elsewhere? If this is the case, how can I get around the problem? I need to move the site but cannot afford to lose rankings (and I don’t want the hassle of having to setup email servers etc.).

Many thanks…

[Webwork]

My question is this…. Is the above true? Would I get penalised by the likes of google for having the name servers and email etc. with one host, and the actual website hosted elsewhere?

This is a SEO question, not a domain name question.