Moving Host and Domain Name Registrars

In late November last year I moved my site niche-website-guide.com from 1and1 UK to Bluehost. The main reason for doing this was to see what difference it made to the search engines.

Over the last few years Yahoo in particular seems to give completely different results when searching the USA Yahoo (yahoo.com) and the UK Yahoo (yahoo.co.uk). The site was doing well in Yahoo uk and not so well Google in Yahoo USA.

I wanted to see if simply moving it to a USA host would reverse the results. I would expect it to, which is why I recommend that USA based businesses use a USA based host and vice-versa. However I would still like confirmation. The results will take time to come through as the search engines adjust to the new location.

Overview

There are two things to consider. The first is the moving of the domain name registrar from 1and1 UK to Bluehost. When complete it means that domain name renewals and payments are made by/to Bluehost and not 1and1UK.

The second is the movement of the website (the files) from the 1and1 server to the Bluehost server.

Even though they seem related they are separate and it would have been possible to move hosts only, and leave the domain registration as it was. In fact this is common with organizations that purchase many domain names. They purchase the domain names and the hosting from two different companies and link them as necessary.

However I find this arrangement difficult to administer for small organizations, and so I recommend using the same domain name registrar and hosting provider, which is why I transferred the domain name.

The Process

There are four main steps in the move.

Prepare for Transfer
Establish the new site
Reconfigure name server entries on Site A (original site) to point to the new site (site B).
Request transfer of domain name to new authority.

Prepare for Transfer

Note:The actual transfer is purely administrative (for billing and renewal).

Also the actual admin transfer is done last and should only be done after the Domain Name servers have been updated.

During the transfer process you will receive emails from both hosts either requesting information of advising of status.

For security reasons domain registrars lock a domain name to prevent unauthorised transfers and so the first step of the process is to unlock the domain name. This is done on the admin panel of the originating host (Host A)

Establish the New Host

First you need to get a new hosting account if you don't already have one. Most new hosts also include a domain name as part of the hosting package, and will let you transfer an existing domain name if it already exists.

In my case the domain name already exists and so I needed to request a transfer this I did as part of the ordering process.

Configure the New website

Basically you need to copy the files from the old server to the new one. In my case and many cases this is very straightforward as the files are also located on my PC and I FTP them onto the 1and1 server.

All I need to do is to FTP all the files to the new server.

However the FTP account uses the domain name but if I FTP to niche-website-guide I get the website on the one and one servers not the Bluehost as the DNS (Domain Name Servers) haven't been reconfigured.

However I can't reconfigure the Domain servers as if I do they will send visitors to a blank site. It's a catch22 which in the case of Bluehost is solved by the fact that they supply a temporary address to use to FTP the files before the Name Servers have been configured.

This I used to transfer all of the files from my PC to the new host location on the Bluehost servers.

Configuring the Name Servers

This is done on the control panel of the originating registrar (1and1). The DNS information was supplied by Bluehost and I entered it into the DNS settings for the domain name

It now takes about 24 hours for the DNS servers on the Internet to synchronize and until then a visitor may be directed to the site on the 1and1 server or the site on the Bluehost server.

It's not possible to tell which so I made a slight edit on the home page of the new site so that I would know which one I was being directed to.

The new site actually showed up within 24 hours. After that I waited a week before I imitated the domain transfer.

Transferring The Domain Name

The is the last phase which places the administration of the domain name with Bluehost. Again it is important to point out that it is not strictly speaking necessary as I could have left it with 1and1.

During the transfer process you are asked for an authorisation code. This you get from the originating domain registrar (1and1).

This phase is initiated on Bluehost control panel. Here is the Whois information before the transfer:

Here is the Whois information after the transfer (Approx 7 days after request)

WHOIS information for: niche-website-guide.com:

The data in the BlueHost.Com WHOIS database is provided
to you by BlueHost.Com for information purposes only,
that is, to assist you in obtaining information about or related to
a domain name registration record. BlueHost.Com makes
this information available "as is," and does not guarantee its
accuracy.  By submitting a WHOIS query, you  agree that you will use
this data only for lawful purposes and that, under no circumstances
will you use this data to: (1) allow, enable, or otherwise support
the transmission of mass unsolicited, commercial advertising or
solicitations via direct mail, electronic mail, or by telephone; or
(2) enable high volume, automated, electronic processes that apply
to BlueHost.Com (or its systems). The compilation,
repackaging, dissemination or other use of this data is expressly
prohibited without the prior written consent of
BlueHost.Com. BlueHost.Com reserves the
right to modify these terms at any time.  By submitting this query,
you agree to abide by these terms.

=-=-=-=

Registrar Name....: BlueHost.Com
Registrar Whois...: whois.bluehost.com
Registrar Homepage: http://www.bluehost.com/

Domain Name: NICHE-WEBSITE-GUIDE.COM

   Created on..............: 2005-04-12 14:51:35 GMT
   Expires on..............: 2009-04-12 00:00:00 GMT
   Last modified on........: 2007-12-12 06:57:33 GMT

Registrant Info: (FAST-12911090)
   Cope Consulting ltd
   Stephen Cope
   Akehurst
   Ironbridge,  TF8 7JT
   United Kingdom
   Phone: +44.1952884731
   Fax..:
   Email: stevecope@onetel.com
   Last modified: 2007-12-05 20:41:27 GMT

Administrative Info: (FAST-12911090)
   Cope Consulting ltd
   Stephen Cope
   Akehurst
   Ironbridge,  TF8 7JT
   United Kingdom
   Phone: +44.1952884731
   Fax..:
   Email: stevecope@onetel.com
   Last modified: 2007-12-05 20:41:27 GMT

Technical Info: (FAST-12785240)
   Attn: niche-website-guide.com
   C/O BlueHost.Com Domain Privacy
   1215 North Research Way
   Suite #Q 3500
   Orem, Utah 84097
   United States
   Phone: +1.8017659400
   Fax..: +1.8017651992
   Email: whois@bluehost.com
   Last modified: 2007-04-05 16:50:56 GMT

Status: Locked

Domain servers in listed order:

   NS1.BLUEHOST.COM
   NS2.BLUEHOST.COM

Summary

The domain transfer and host change is very straightforward there is a likelihood that you will suffer a short outage while the DNS servers get updated but it is unlikely.

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