Smooth Transition to Host Gator

[Wayne Sallee]

You did a good job of giving instructions for making a smooth transition to hostgator at
http://www.hostgator.com/moving.shtml

but you didn't include e-mail transition. Some of your soon to be customers would benefit from the inclusion of instructions on making a smooth transition with e-mail to hostgator.com.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne@WayneSallee.com

[Goddess Dix]

And specifically, if you have HG transfer your accounts, your email accounts will also be moved.

[Wayne Sallee]

Originally Posted by Goddess Dix

And specifically, if you have HG transfer your accounts, your email accounts will also be moved.

True, but since many hosts, including gator, use the mail.mydomain.com address for retrieving mail, mail that goes to your old host will not be retrievable by mail.mydomain.com, as that connection will go to the new host.

Remember that it takes 72 hours for the propagation to completely go through. During this time people going to your site, or sending e-mail to you, my go to the old host, or the new host during this time period.

I'll be doing a mail forwarding rule to an alternate e-mail address to take care of that.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne@WayneSallee.com

[Pazeh]

u can always use the IP address to check the mail

[Wayne Sallee]

Originally Posted by Pazeh

u can always use the IP address to check the mail

You mean logging in to the old account through cpannel?

I was actually refereeing to pop mail, though I failed to mention that I was referring to the pop mail.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne@WayneSallee.com

[GvilleRick]

You can enter the IP address of your old host as the POP3 host to check any mail that gets delivered to them as the domain is propagating.

[Wayne Sallee]

Originally Posted by GvilleRick

You can enter the IP address of your old host as the POP3 host to check any mail that gets delivered to them as the domain is propagating.

So one would change the "mail.website.com" in the pop settigns to "mail.ipaddress"?

Wayne Sallee
Wayne@WayneSallee.com

[GvilleRick]

No. Just the IP address. For example, if your IP address is 123.123.123.1 you would enter that in as the POP3 host. You would not enter mail. in front or it will return an error.

[Wayne Sallee]

Originally Posted by GvilleRick

No. Just the IP address. For example, if your IP address is 123.123.123.1 you would enter that in as the POP3 host. You would not enter mail. in front or it will return an error.

Ok thanks.

I just now signed up with gator, and I'm now in the process of making the transition.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne@WayneSallee.com

[Wayne Sallee]

Here is another suggestion for the the gator transition instructions:

On the page http://www.hostgator.com/gettingstarted.shtml

It states:

"The very first step is to change your domains dns to the name servers you received in your welcome email. Note: If you purchased your domain from us we will do this step for you. If you didn't purchase it from us and need more information please visit Changing DNS.

After your dns changes have been made please allow 24-48 for your dns to propagate worldwide. During this initial 24-48 hours your site will be working one minute "

But it should say that if you are going to be moving your web site over, yourself, then you will want to first move your web content over to your new location with gator, and then when you have it working, *then* change your dns settings.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne@WayneSallee.com

[Wayne Sallee]

What about testing e-mail before changing the dns? Can I send an e-mail to mailname@ipaddress ?

I think that after this thread is done it woud be good for Gator to use this discussion to add to the info on making a smooth transition. First impressions are always important, and having all the bases covered, (or most of them ) would be good for business.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne@WayneSallee.com

[Sam]

Originally Posted by Wayne Sallee

What about testing e-mail before changing the dns? Can I send an e-mail to mailname@ipaddress ?

I think that after this thread is done it woud be good for Gator to use this discussion to add to the info on making a smooth transition. First impressions are always important, and having all the bases covered, (or most of them ) would be good for business.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne@WayneSallee.com

You could try cpanelusername@gatorxx.hostgator.com

[slapshotw]

If you have another account on the server that's working, send the email from there with HG's SMTP. The mail will stay within the box.

[gwyneth]

Originally Posted by Wayne Sallee

I think that after this thread is done it woud be good for Gator to use this discussion to add to the info on making a smooth transition.

Fortunately, most people moving accounts themselves are at least somewhat familiar with the points you've mentioned.

[Wayne Sallee]

Here is some more information on making a smooth transition:

While it is known to take up to 48 hours for your domain name to populate, it is often updated by your internet provider within a couple of hours. The following code done in a command prompt will reset the dns on your computer so that it is not using old dns info:

ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /registerdns

But here's something even better. Don't even bother changing your dns info. You can test your website out without populating it, nobody else will see your new site, only you. This works, even if you are setting up a forum. Typing in the ip address in the brouser address won't work right with setting up a forum:

Just open C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

and add the ip address that you want to work on.

ipaddreess www.mywebsite.com
ipaddress mywebsite.com

Be sure to ad both the www format, and the non www format.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne@WayneSallee.com

[GvilleRick]

While the HOSTS file trick is handy in being able to work on your site before it has fully propagated it is also a good idea to go back in after propagation and remove the entries. If you fail to remove it and later move your site or have the IP change due to adding an SSL or a server move then you will still have your computer looking at the old IP. I had a couple of Help Desk tickets that I worked and the problem ended up being that someone had added entries to the HOSTS file months earlier.

[Wayne Sallee]

Originally Posted by GvilleRick

While the HOSTS file trick is handy in being able to work on your site before it has fully propagated it is also a good idea to go back in after propagation and remove the entries. If you fail to remove it and later move your site or have the IP change due to adding an SSL or a server move then you will still have your computer looking at the old IP. I had a couple of Help Desk tickets that I worked and the problem ended up being that someone had added entries to the HOSTS file months earlier.

Yea, you don't want to forget to remove it. Keep it in the todo list.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne@WayneSallee.com