add on domain question

I currently host a half dozen domains on a machine in my back bedroom. I am looking to cool the house down and save a bit of electricity by picking a hosting company. I figure I am spending more than twice what host gator charges just in electricity. Anyway, here's my question.

In http://www.hostgator.com/ticket/inde...&root=12&id=83 it says that you can not add an add-on domain until the DNS has propogated. Does that mean I must switch the domain to point to host gator, wait a couple of hours, THEN create the site with you? It also says the folder can not exist so I would be stuck waiting till I create it or uploading it to a different folder and renaming it..

Am I really stuck with several hours of downtime to do the transfer? Or can I create the add-on domain at hostgator with dns still pointing to my machine, transfer the files over and run tandem servers (with forum posting disabled on old machine) as dns propogates world wide?

[JZ]

The nameservers do need to be switched prior to creating an addon domain. This would not be the case if you were using a reseller account and creating accounts for all domains, but is true if you are just using one account and utilizing an addon domain. This is a limitation of CPanel, so there is no way around it.

I have never tried this, but if you try it you can let us know how it works out. It might be possible to point your 3rd and 4th nameservers to hostgator in order to create the addon domain. Once everything is uploaded to the server, just move the 3rd and 4th nameservers to 1st and 2nd and remove the nameservers pointing to your home machine.

Again, this is only a guess and if it doesn't work, then you will have to change the dns, wait for propagation, and have the downtime.

- Jay