I need to close a web host account, but I don't understand how the domains, name servers, web hosts are working [closed]

Question

I'll try to make this a clear as possible, as its confusing to me. A developer set all of this up and now he's unavailable for this.

There are 2 domain names both with Netfirms: old.com and new.com. old.com used to be the website, but the company re-branded and built a new website for new.com

There are 2 hosting companies: OldHost and NewHost. OldHost is not being used any more, so we want to close that account, but don't want to break anything. NewHost has all the files on it and new.com is working from those files.

Here is what shows up on Netfirms for old.com (everything else default I believe):

• URL stealth pointing to new.com
• Nameservers pointing to OldHost

Here is what shows up on Netfirms for new.com (everything else default I believe):

• URL stealth pointing to old.com
• Nameservers pointing to OldHost

On OldHost, I found the subdomains new.old.com -> /public_html/new.com. I also found the addon domain: new.com -> /public_html/new.com. Both are not being redirected.

Google Apps is also set up for both domains and that should not break either. I looked in Netfirms, but did not find anything there. In OldHost, I found the Google Apps mx records for both domains.

I don't understand how this is all working, can someone please guide me through how I would close the OldHost account without breaking the site or Google Apps?

Answer 1

This sounds like its all DNS stuff. If you have the site running successfully on new.com, that's great news. That means DNS for new.com is pointing to the right places, at least for the website. If you don't see MX records in the DNS for new.com, your email might break once you close the OldHost account, as all the DNS records are stored there.

So, basically it sounds like you'll want to: 1. Make sure DNS for new.com is configured correctly (for website and for Google Apps) 2. Configure the nameservers for new.com to point to newHost.

Wait about 24 hours, and make sure that you can resolve all new.com requests (website and mail flow) without issue. The next thing you should do is remove any redirection code from the newSite.

Once that is done, and you know that new.com is standing on its own two feet, you should be able to close down your oldHost account without issue.