I have 3 domain names I would like to transfer to hostmysite....2 are with networksolutions and 1 is with domainpeople. I will be acquiring a new .net name when ordering the hosting.

I am about to setup hosting w hostmysite. These are the steps I think I need to perform. Please let me know where I am off. For the short term the website will continue to live at antother IP. I want to begin using host my site for mail and get off my old mailserver.

1. Should I point the sites to your dns first or just update the MX record on the old dns servers to reflect your mx?

2. If I update the MX for 3 domains to point to your mailserver will I have any problems? Im thinking that I should be doing this differently. Should I use your dns servers instead for all three sites. And point the MX back to their mailserver for a day or so so that I have time to get the new mail accnts configured.

3. After email is working properly and the sites are resolving to the old IP I am going to initate the transfer of reg. When this process occurs will my dns information be updated automatically in the opensrs config or will I need to update that manually after the name has moved?

I just changed the admin email on the accounts. How long should I wait before begining? Do your servers look at cached whois or realtime?

I would like to have zero downtime for mail and website. Any recommendations to achieve this would be greatly appreciated.

One more question....They receive email from any of the 4 dns names but it all goes to their primary domain name. If all of my names use the same mx entry will I get the same result?

Thanks in advance.

sean

1. Should I point the sites to your dns first or just update the MX record on the old dns servers to reflect your mx?

> Either/or. Pointing to our DNS servers takes a day or two, but changing the MX will be instantaneous.


2. If I update the MX for 3 domains to point to your mailserver will I have any problems? Im thinking that I should be doing this differently. Should I use your dns servers instead for all three sites. And point the MX back to their mailserver for a day or so so that I have time to get the new mail accnts configured.

> Get the new accounts configured on our end first, and make sure all three domains have entries in our nameservers. Plus, in Smartermail, make sure the secondary domains are setup as Domain Aliases so mail will deliver for them as well even though they aren't the primary domain name.

3. After email is working properly and the sites are resolving to the old IP I am going to initate the transfer of reg. When this process occurs will my dns information be updated automatically in the opensrs config or will I need to update that manually after the name has moved?

> A registrar transfer has no effect on nameserver information for a domain; the two operations are independent of each other.

I just changed the admin email on the accounts. How long should I wait before begining? Do your servers look at cached whois or realtime?

> Updates to domain information on a Whois take 24-48 hours before they are 'live'. Your registrar may show the record as updated but other registrars won't see the changes until they've propagated.

I would like to have zero downtime for mail and website. Any recommendations to achieve this would be greatly appreciated.

> With the info that I've given here that should be easily accomplished.

One more question....They receive email from any of the 4 dns names but it all goes to their primary domain name. If all of my names use the same mx entry will I get the same result?

> Yes, but each additional domain name must be listed in the Domain Aliases section of Smartermail in order for your mailserver to accept mail from those domains to your accounts.