Transferring domain with email?

[Flopsy]

OK, new around here so hello all.

Anyway, I've come to EUKHost from 1and1 and I want to transfer my domain from them. The important issue however is that 1and1 handle all my email on that domain, and I need to transfer the domain across without losing my email service for any appreciable time.

So does anyone have any experience with this?

It seems to me I can't set up an email account here "ready" on that domain until EUKHost are handling it, so I guess there will be a time where email tries to come to me here, yet can't be processed.

Is it therefore best to update 1and1 so it points to the EUKHost nameservers for that domain first, then set up the email account here, then when that is all working, initiate the transfer? Or is the transfer so quick that this isn't really an issue?

It is a .net domain if that makes any difference.

[Flopsy]

I found a few more forum messages - one seems to imply that you can point the MX records on the external site to EUKHost and mail then comes here.

But how would that work? Say my domain is home.com here, and away.com at 1and1.

I set up an email account at EUKHost, say, mail@home.com - that works fine.

Now at 1and1 I update the MX record on away.com to be home.com - that will mean the mail will all arrive here at EUKHost, but then what happens?

It is addressed to mail@away.com and surely can't be resolved here?

And I can't add away.com to my addon domains yet, as I haven't transferred over all the other DNS records, so I can't set up a mailbox on away.com here yet ready to receive all the mail.

I'm confused. Beginning to think this is a bad idea, and sticking to 1and1 is the better option.

[eUKhost]

Hello Ralph,

to Eukhost Forums! I can understand your apprehensions. Let me explain this. I presume that you have cPanel hosting with 1and1 at this moment. Signup for the hosting plan of your choice with us. You may take a backup of all your data (which will include emails) and dump the backup in the eukhost account. Our support team will restore it for you.

Once this has been done, point your MX records to EUK. This applies to all domains for which you change the MX records provided they are under your hosting account with EUK. Turn-around time is quick enough to ensure no or very less mails being undelivered to your mail-box.

[Flopsy]

Thanks for the reply - it wasn't quite what I was asking, as I don't need to move any actual email, just ensure that the transition between 1and1 and EUKHost handling the mail for my domain was as smooth as possible.

I have moved another domain over now from 1and1 by changing the nameservers and the total downtime was around 30 minutes - which was basically the time it took 1and1 to update their nameserver records. Once that update was in place, I was able to park that domain using Cpanel and it worked straight away.

So I'll just do that, and then later, move over the actual domain.

One last question - that second phase, of moving the domain over - that should be seamless, right? As the nameservers will already be pointing to EUKHost where the domain is parked?

[eUKhost.com]

One last question - that second phase, of moving the domain over - that should be seamless, right? As the nameservers will already be pointing to EUKHost where the domain is parked?

Yes. This should not take more than few minutes.

If you get stuck somewhere then contact us here or livechat and we will get it sorted for you.