Transferring a domain without email downtime

[evilsatan]

I am about to transfer some of my domains from my web designers 1&1 account to my 123-reg account but am worried about email downtime.

Currently the domains are registered with 1&1 and the nameservers point to hostgator so I assume hostgator host the website and control the email. I believe the email is set up as a basic catchall forwarding to my Gmail. When I transfer the domain from 1&1 to 123-reg will there be any downtime where I may lose mail? I have asked both 123-reg and 1&1 but neither could help. 123-reg said the DNS should stay the same so there shouldn't be downtime but I must ask 1&1, 1&1 just said they do not host my email so there will be downtime.

Is there anything I can do to ensure there is no downtime? Or am I able to limit downtime? 123-reg will not allow me to setup email instructions prior to the transfer to become active when the transfer is complete.

Cheers

[theodotcom]

you shouldnt have any issues with downtime, your nameservers will be with nominet so they should not reset, I had someone move a load of domain names over to 123reg and there was no downtime on any.

You're best bet is to ask nominet and they will advise you better, because 1and1 can be funny with things like this, I've had loads of bad experiences with them and they make things as difficult as possible.

Good luck either way

[tombott]

Check the MX records of your domain name.
Do you wish to continue forwarding to your gmail?
I would setup multiple MX records, 1 pointing to current setup and 2nd to new host.

[evilsatan]

Basically I would like things to remain as they are until I have the domain under my own account, then I am migrating to hosted exchange on my domain but it is easier if I do this when it is under my control so I can alter the MX records rather than keep bothering my web designer.

So if I move them as they are now the only thing that will change is where the domain is? I wasn't sure how this all worked. I will try to work out my MX records now and post back.

Cheers lads

EDIT:

So here was the result:

mydomain.com MX Preference = 0, Mail Exchanger = mydomain.com

Not what I usually see but I guess this means that hostgator will be forwarding my mail? As that is where the nameservers point to and is where the web hosting is?

[tric]

When I've transferred domains from 1&1 to 123reg the nameservers didn't change. As long as the nameservers are still set to hostgator everything will work as it was.

[evilsatan]

Awesome, thanks all

[Rick Sanchez]

Nameservers can take up to 72 hours to update but you shouldn't notice a difference if it is the same

[evilsatan]

Perfect, I wasn't sure how it worked, I didn't realise the domain registrar sends nameservers to a central place, now I get why it takes a while for them to propagate.

[Rick Sanchez]

It all depends on the companies backlog; my company is normal within a couple of hours; some how

[Over Carl]

Tombott's spot on, you can specify multiple MX records with different priorities.

The odd thing is that often spammers will prioritise the MX with the lowest priority because they are hoping the backup MX won't be running any anti-spam.

When I'm doing this kind of stuff, I tend to significantly lower the TTL's in advance of the changeover to minimise propagation delay.

[evilsatan]

I have the transfer going through soon and will see how it goes. I assume I then need to change the nameservers back to 123-reg from hostgator so I have DNS control and then use a record of some sort to direct http traffic to my website and MX records for email or CNAME for autodiscover on the hosted exchange.

[Over Carl]

I can't comment on your need to switch nameservers, but for your website create 2 x A records (one for yourdomain.com and the other for www.yourdomain.com).

Also good idea to setup a PTR (reverse DNS) record matching to the name in your SMTP banner and TXT/SPF records for SPF to help make sure your mails don't get tagged/treated as spam.

[evilsatan]

Ok I now have the domains transferred into my 123-reg account. The new problem is when I try to manage the DNS on 123-reg it says I cannot do this until I alter the nameservers from hostgator (where my hosting is) to 123-reg. Is there a way that I can change my nameservers to 123-reg whilst keeping my hosting with hostgator and having my domains go to my website like before? I would like the ability to manage my own DNS so I can set up hosted exchange accounts on my domain.

Am I correct in thinking the way to do this is to add a record into my 123-reg DNS that points to my hosting and add another record so my mail goes to the hosted exchange. Once the records are set up in 123-reg I just change the nameservers to 123-reg so the new records come into effect and then I have achieved what I wanted to?

Something I have hardly any experience in as I don't offer web design etc.

[tric]

You've got it spot on. Setup all the DNS records in 123. Leave it 24 hours and then switch the nameservers to 123. Should be no downtime.

[evilsatan]

So do I use an A record to direct http traffic? And do I ask my host for the IP to direct traffic to?

[tric]

Yes. On 123 you need to set the '@' and 'www' A record. This will cover yourdomain.com and www.yourdomain.com

You can ask your host for the IP or find out yourself by doing a DNS Records search of your domain on http://network-tools.com/

You'll need to set MX records too so emails are directed to your host also.

[evilsatan]

Thanks mate, I have already set the MX records and CNAME for exchange autodiscover for the domain so the final hurdle is the A record for the hosting.

I used your tool to see the DNS records and it showed me the A records for my domain. When I try to reach any of these three IPs I hit a 404 error page. It seems this is common with hostgator. I will have to try and sort this out with my web designer, looks like I have to order a dedicated IP.

[Over Carl]

If you are trying to directly access the site by using http://123.456.789.012 rather that http://yoursite.com or http://www.yoursite.com and it doesn't work, that's probably because they have numerous sites being served from the same server/ip address and they are serving the content based on the requested domain name.

[evilsatan]

That's correct, I have read up on it and you have to order a dedicated IP. I wasn't sure if you could use ports or directories to do this using the shared IP i.e. http://12.180.25.890/mydomain but I can't seem to find information suggesting this is possible.

[Over Carl]

You shouldn't need to configure anything. The mechanism to translate domain name to relevant content should be handled by the host, so as long as you plonk your site there it should work unless it's got any links dependant on IP address rather than domain/host name.

If you nslookup www.mydomain.com does it bring your current or old site IP address?