Forum Moderators: phranque
I'm assuming it would work like this: I'd set up an account with my host for the company's domain name (I'm using Pair.com), and then create custom MX records in the DNS to point to each of their current mail servers. Finally I'd have them point their domain's DNS over to my host and then I'd just wait for things to propagate.
Am I close?
My primary concern is that they don't lose any e-mail. Their website currently consists of only one page, so I'm not too concerned with that. ;) How long does it take for an MX record to propagate? Is there any way make sure that my settings are correct before 'flipping the switch'? Is there anything else I should watch out for?
Setup the hosting account, amend the new DNS MX record to point to the IP address of their mailserver. Do an nslookup on the new hosting account's DNS server (server ***.***.***.***) for MX record (type=mx) and confirm that you get back the expected IP address for the mailserver. Switch the DNS at the registrar.
Can't see there being much downtime if any if you follow this.
HTH
However, while you can add DNS entries of your own in pair's control center, I don't see a way to directly modify the MX entries. You might have to ask support to do that for you. Either way, it's been done before and shouldn't be a problem.
Alternatively, you can handle the DNS for the domain elsewhere, and just point the A record to the IP pair gives you. I can't quite tell from your question which alternative you're considering, but they're both fine.
Nobody should lose any mail in the process. I's likely that during the transition some mail will arrive at the old account, and some at the new one. But that should be easy enough to merge (eg. by placing a forward on one of them). You can even keep the old (pair) MX around as a low priority fallback if you want.
DNS entries typically propagate within a few days up to two weeks. It depends on the TTL ("time to live") that the entries have been given on the originating DNS server.
The best way to verify your changes before committing them is to stare at them very hard, doing so again the next day, and then ask someone knowledgeable to confirm your findings. But the change sounds simple enough so that this shouldn't be a problem
Just to clarify things, I'm only planning to move the website hosting to Pair. I want to leave the e-mail where it is. So if I follow the sequence that vrtlw outlined I shouldn't have any interruption at all for the e-mail, right?
