Paul .G

Hey up,
What would happen if

My existing site is up and running ok with hosting company1 (domain also regesterd with hosting company1)

I am moving it to another hosting company but want to build a new site on it before going live with the move.

So on the new hosting comapny I set the nameservers to point to hosting company1 who have got my domain name.

What happens when two hosting companys are pointing to the same domain name?

Do I need to set the nameservers on hosting company2 to their nameservers while building the new site, then point them to the domain name once I want to swap the sites over??

Or is there a different way I should build the new site in the background??

Thanks,
Paul

LostUser

So company1 are currently hosting the website and the domain name?

I would build the new site with your new hosting company and when you're ready for it to go live, instruct your old hosting company to point your domain to the new hosting company.

If you want to move the domain hosting from company1 to company2 at a later date then you can do that.

hodgy0_2

it might be worth moving the tag records to your new hosting, but still pointing to the existing hosting company (website) before you move the site

you have more control this way

Paul .G

Hi,
Yes company1 are currently hosting both website and domain name,
What are tag records? is this different from nameservers?

Thanks,
paul

LostUser

Your domain name is currently registered with Company1. As it happens, you are also using Company1 to host your website.

So Company1 have pointed the DNS record for your domain name to their own hosting servers.

You could instruct Company1 to change the DNS record so that it points to the hosting servers of Company2.

This means that your website is being hosted by Company2, but the domain name/DNS record is still registered with Company1.

The 2 services are completely separate.

My advice was to build your new website with Company2 and then instruct Company1 to change the DNS record to point your domain name to Company2.

Hodgy suggested moving the domain name registration from Company1 to Company2 first. However, until you'd got your new website built on Company2's servers, you'd instruct Company2 to point your DNS record back to the hosting servers of Company1.

hope that helps.

RichB

I would copy site1 to hosting company2 if possible and move the domain, then get the site working on company2 under a subfolder, then move it all when it's ready.

judgejules

Whoever is listed on the Whois will be the ones that are actually hosting the active records for that domain. If the whois lists company1 and company2 then the dns lookups will be split 50/50 between the two companies. As soon as company1 stops hosting the domain name record all queries to company1 will fail and will fallback onto company2.

Personally I would move the domain to a impartial third party (ie godaddy) before you start moving servers as some companies will stick their claws into your domains when they see you jumping ship. I would then copy your existing site to the new company, set it up as a host header redirected site (ie www.mydomain.com) and set up your new site on test.mydomain.com) all on the same IP.

You can then switch the www record to the new server in your own time and wait for it to propagate. When you are then ready to launch the new site, disable the www site and rename test to www.

This is a better way of doing it than using a sub-folder as you can make sure that all your links work in a root based structure on test.mysite.com but it all depends on the functions provided by your new host and your ability.

Give me a PM if you need any further help.

J

Paul .G

ok thanks guys,