Transfering a domain... the process please...?

[TheMusicMan]

I am currently looking into a new Webhosting package for my vB3 forum as I have recently discovered some limitations that my current webhost (oneandone UK) places on all their customers accounts. Apart from this, I have been with them for several years and the service they offer is excellent. I suppose I am dissapointed to be honest at the possibility of leaving them, but there ya go! We have to move on.

So, here's what I have no idea how to do.

How do I transfer all/any of my existing owned domains over to a new webhost. Could my current webhost hold anything up...? I wouldn't want ANY downtime of my www site if this was possible.. is it?

What exactly is the full process that I need to go through here...? What if my current webhost doesn't like my moving away from them...? Is there a risk to my www site being offline for any length of time...? are there any standards/governing bodies that might oversee any issues...?

As you can tell, I am very protective of my existing forum and want to ensure that I can transfer domains and migrate to vB3 with as little interruption to my forum members as possible. Any advice you can provide is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[AA2004]

I recommend godaddy.com, you can transfer a domain to them for a few pounds, your host couldn't do nothing as it's your domain but downtime would be certain during the move which usualy takes between 24 and 48 hours.

Here's some info from godaddy

Here is an overview of the process:

1. Advise your administrative contact that the domain name is being transferred.
2. GoDaddy.com will email your administrative contact by the next business day to request transfer approval.
3. When this acceptance is received, we will send a transfer request to the registry.
4. The registry will email your current registrar.
5. Most likely, your current registrar will send your administrative contact an email asking for your approval of the transfer to GoDaddy.com. Please respond as directed.
6. Your current registrar will send an acceptance or rejection notice to the registry.
7. The registry will email GoDaddy.com a notice of the acceptance or rejection.
8. GoDaddy.com will send you an email informing you that the transfer is complete. Should the transfer fail, we will inform you.

Helpful hints:

• Verify that the domain name's administrative contact email address at your current registrar is correct. This is the address we are required to contact to request approval for the transfer. Click here to view your domain name in the Whois database.
• After we have notified you that the transfer is complete, log in to your account and verify the contact information for your domain. Inaccurate or incomplete contact data may result in the cancellation of your domain name. Click here to retrieve your login information.

[TheMusicMan]

Thanks for the info AA2004. This is exactly what I am worried about i.e. the total amount of downtime during the transfer. Is there no way to eliminate this...? Surely it's in the interests of the new webhost to ensure minimal disruption to a clients' site...?

What are peoples experiences of this folks...:?

[AA2004]

Downtime is enevitable because when you 'point' your domain away from its current location on to another not everyone on the internet will notice the change straight away. Every ISP has to update its cache, so others will see your site in its new location whereas others on other ISPs who have not yet refreshed will not see it. The normal turnaround time is about 24 hours. I've done it myself with several domains and have been lucky in some instances to have downtime of only 5 hours, this may seem a lot but some can take upto 48. Perhaps you may want to have a secondary domain and use it while the other is going through this process if uptime is vital to you but it's not really worth it if you can put up with the downtime.
I see you're from the same region as me anyway near enough.

[Askoldww]

Others may be more knowledgable in this area than me, but here's my understanding.

The 24-hour (approx) delay has nothing to do with the level of cooperation of the new and old hosting services - it's all about propagating your new domain name through the DNS. It takes time for all the name servers to update.

Is 24 hours too much of a hit for you?

You should get an IP address for the new host as soon as you sign up - maybe you could put a message on your old host with a link to the new forum using the IP address?

[TheMusicMan]

Hey AA2004 - where are you then...? come on, you gotta tell now...

Hey Askoldww - No not really, it's nto too much of a hit, I could live with a downtime of 24hrs. It's just that I want to make best endeavours for my membership that's all. I recently went offline for 4 hours whilst I upgraded to phpBB2.0.6 and there were screams of cold turkey all over the place... hehe

So, looks like I'm gonna have to live with this eh! thanks for the advice.