Safely Moving to New Website Hosting Service

Current Webmaster blocking move

[waterwoman]

I have a very serious problem...
I'm trying to move from my current webmaster & hosting service (I need more services & products among other things). The difficulty is that I tried to move two months ago, but the webmaster blocked the move on the basis I made a mistake in the registration - however, the real reason was that he has legal and personal issues with the hosting company I was moving to. To top things off, he also markets for several of my direct competitors while having full access to my stats (I do my own marketing), and is the local ODP editor for my regional catagory.
Scary!
My registration is with NetSol, and the question is how can I move my site to a new hosting service (different from the one he has problems with) without him a) blocking my move or b) causing other difficulties via ODP?

[dwedeking]

If you are the registered owner of the domain there is no problem moving the domain. If you don't have access to the email you can use the FAX system which takes about a week longer but will by-pass the email system.

[waterwoman]

I am the registered owner. If I do it all by FAX, would the current webmaster have any notice at all? Or would he find out only when I informed him at the end that I was terminating my hosting?

[Tapolyai]

I would make sure I dumped all my databases, copied every file, including logs, .htaccess and other bash files to the new ISP, tested it through and through (using the IP instead of the name).

Make sure not just your web works but your mail, FTP, telnet, and gopher sites with as expected.

Record the old IP for future reference.

Then go to you domain name registry and change the two DNSes to the new ISP. Make sure you creat all the records, not just A, but MX and alias ones. Wait 48 hours for the DNS to propagate. (It usually takes less then 24 hours, but just in case there is a slow server somewhere downwind.)

Delete everything from the old ISP (using the IP address you saved).

Cancel the service at the old ISP.

NEVER, EVER let your ISP be any kind of contact on your domain names, under any circumstances. If this is a requirement by the ISP, find an other one!

Good luck.

[oilman]

Make sure to have all the contact info for Admin and Technical changed to your name as well. If you're talking about the domain in your profile you are only listed as the billing contact right now. The fax system is your only avenue right now if your current webmaster is going to act like this.

[waterwoman]

Thank you. I don't have direct access to my log files, but my site is still new so I'll have to live with that. When it was first set up, he told me that he *had* to be the technical & admin, or it wouldn't be accepted. I feel a bit *had* myself! :( Thanks for the information, I still feel queasy, but I now have a way to slide out from under him! ;)

[Xoc]

Very common for an ISP to demand to be Technical or Admin listing. If you have to give in, let them be Technical. Don't let them be both, because if they are you can't change ISPs without their permission (or a difficult and non-reliable fax mechanism). You absolutely want to be Admin, and don't give in.

I went through practically the same thing with one ISP who wound up being both Admin and Technical (before I knew better). I went through a series of threatening letters before I finally took control of Admin. Using the Admin privilege, I then removed them from Technical.

Also, don't ever close the account where you get email from Network Solutions before you change the domain info. If you can't get the email, you can't change the domain info. I strongly suggest getting the Network Solutions email at a different ISP than where you have your domains registered. That way if your ISP goes belly-up overnight, you can still change the info. You might even keep technical and admin at two different ISP email addresses (neither where the domain is parked), for better control of your info.

Realize that the email addresses in the domain listing are public information. Spammers mine those email addresses. Network Solutions also sells the info in your domain listing to snail mail spammers. So use email addresses and snail mail addresses that you can expect to get spam.