Greetings all! I'm just really getting my feet wet into web server admin stuff. I've got my new site built for a local company, and we have decided to move from a free host they had locally who couldn't provide much in the way of back end control (i.e. cpanel, etc.) It was a pretty basic site that is now growing to something larger. Anyways, I've got my new hosting plan all bought up (imhosted.com), and have uploaded the site to the new host's FTP. I know the nameservers for the new host and I know that i need to update them with my domain registrar (register.com) in order to make the site propagate with the new IP/server Now I am wondering about transferring email from the old host to the new host. I don't know exactly what I'm supposed to do other than set up the accounts with the new host in my hosting control panel. Do I need to transfer an MX Record or something? I'd prefer that there was no downtime when I perform whatever steps are necessary to transfer email, and our old host has agreed to keep the email going until I tell him to stop so I don't think that will be a problem. I just don't really know what my next steps are. Help is appreciated. Thank you!!!
Moving mail is a little more complicated but NO DNS records need to be updated. Simply have identical accounts created at both hosting locations. When you switch the Nameservers over at your registrar, as the domain propagates - any one that sends you emails during that time will end up being delivered to one of two places - either the old host, or the new host. The reason of keeping mail accounts live at both locations is because DNS propagation takes any where from 6 to 72 hours and some times mail takes even longer than that. As the propagation is underway, one person sending you an email will get your new host as the final destination while another person (sometimes in the same state, just a different internet provider) will get the old host as the final destination. Use your Mail Program (ie: Outlook, Thunderbird, Apple Mail, etc) to check the NEW host for mail. Use some sort of Webmail to check email at the OLD location. In about 2 to 7 days, ALL mail will end up at the new host at which time you can close out the old host completely. You CAN NOT check both email accounts at both locations at the same time - not unless you can use different mail servers (ie: mail.hostingprovider.com) as opposed to mail.yourdomain.com. If both locations required you to use mail.yourdomain.com, then you must set up your email programs to check the new location and webmail to check the old location. Hope this makes sense?
Do you know if the old/new host use mbox or maildir format for mail boxes ? if they use the same format , it's easy to copy files from /home/username/mail to the new location.
Dont mean to threadjack here but I am looking into transferring my first site too. Email isnt an issue but I have a streaming tv site with a Mysql database that needs to be transferred and I dont have the first clue on how to do that ??? Anyone know where I might find a good howto ?