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What I currently have:

  • Domain registered at register - oldregister.com
  • Website hosted at different host - oldhosting.com
  • Email hosted at different email provider - oldemailhosting.com

What I want:

  • Domain registered at new register - newregister.com
  • Website hosted at new host - newhosting.com
  • Email continued to be hosted at old email provider- oldemailhosting.com

What I the current plan is:

  1. Unlock domain, get auth code and transfer domain ownership to newregistrar.com from oldregistrar.com
  2. Leave current ns at ns1.oldhost.com
  3. Setup hosting at newhosting.com and wait 5 days for domain ownership to transfer to newregistrar.com
  4. Once domain is transferred all web/email should still work because no ns/records have changed and the oldhosting.com account is still active
  5. On newhosting.com create a new DNS zonefile keeping all the records within (a, cname, mx) the same
  6. At newregistrar.com change the ns to ns1.newhost.com so it reads the zonefile/records on newhosting.com.

What my concern/question is:

Is there any error in these steps that may cause website/email downtime?

oldregistrar.com uses 3rd party dns at ns1.oldhosting.com so no need to change dns to ns1.newhosting.com until after transfer to newregistrar.com is complete.

Mr. Tony Jessup
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1 Answers1

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Set up Namecheap Free DNS for the domain, and move all your existing DNS records, before you transfer the domain from the previous registrar.

When you do transfer the domain, Namecheap will integrate the free DNS with the incoming domain.

Michael Hampton
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  • I have not used Namecheap Free DNS because I that would require me changing to NS to freedns1.registrar-servers.com before the transfer. I believe the Free DNS service is intended for domains using current registrars ns, which this domain does not. If I transfer just the ownership and the dns is not using the old registrars NS (i.e. ns1.OLDDOMAINREGISTRAR.com) than i won't have any downtime right? Because the old ns1.OLDHOST.com and zone file will still be working until the new ns1.NEWHOST.com updates world wide. – Mr. Tony Jessup Oct 27 '14 at 18:58
  • Your statement doesn't make sense. I thought you were intending to transfer your domain registration to Namecheap? – Michael Hampton Oct 27 '14 at 19:02
  • Yes the domain will transfer to namecheap as the registrar but web/email hosting is elsewhere. – Mr. Tony Jessup Oct 27 '14 at 19:05
  • No, you need to bring over the DNS to Namecheap _first_, and then transfer the domain registration. – Michael Hampton Oct 27 '14 at 19:07
  • If i change the ns to from ns1.currenthost.com to freedns1.registrar-servers.com services I might as well change it to ns1.newhost.com instead no? – Mr. Tony Jessup Oct 27 '14 at 19:12
  • Or would it be better to transfer to namecheap with old zone file, records and ns in place. Once transferred (after 5 days) duplicate the records on namecheap and then switch the ns to ns1.newhost.com once hosting is set. Sorry for the long wording, downtime can cause major issues. – Mr. Tony Jessup Oct 27 '14 at 19:16
  • @AnthonyPhelps If you are trying to host your DNS at a third party, why do you want to host it at Namecheap? You really should clarify your question to explain what you are really trying to accomplish. – Michael Hampton Oct 27 '14 at 19:16
  • thank you for your response/patience as I flesh out the correct question. I hope my rewriting helps clarify what I am trying to accomplish, and what my concerns are. – Mr. Tony Jessup Oct 27 '14 at 19:46
  • @AnthonyPhelps It still isn't clear what you intend to do with the DNS. – Michael Hampton Oct 27 '14 at 20:01
  • I intend to recreate the existing zone file and change the dns server to use ns1.mediatemple.com: "... change the ns to ns1.newhost.com so it reads the zonefile/records on newhost.com." – Mr. Tony Jessup Oct 27 '14 at 21:02
  • Again, you need to edit your question. You name a dozen different domains and it's not clear which is which. – Michael Hampton Oct 27 '14 at 21:11
  • The ones with old in them are old and the ones with new are new. I'm trying to generalize because the specific host shouldn't matter. – Mr. Tony Jessup Oct 27 '14 at 22:27
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    That's the point. [You went too far with obfuscation](http://meta.serverfault.com/q/963/126632) and now it doesn't make any sense. If you're going to obfuscate at all, at least make sure everything is consistent. – Michael Hampton Oct 27 '14 at 22:36