Problems Changing Website Hosting

Modifying domain name records is technically an easy thing to do. Getting access to the domain records in order to change them can be quite difficult. Domain name records are used to "point" requests for a website or requests to send email to their corresponding hosting services. For example, each domain name includes a "www" record. As you might guess this record points to the server hosting the website for that domain. The domain name also has something called an "MX" record. The MX record points to the email server for that domain. If the records within the domain name are absent or incorrect the website or email addresses will not be found. To change the hosting of a website or email service the domain name records will have to be modified.


In addition to making changes to specific domain name records it sometimes makes sense to assign the domain name itself to a new DNS server that IT staff or a web developer can access.

Snags can occur when moving a domain name. The transfer of a domain from one DNS server to another requires the approval of the administrative contact listed for the domain. Typically this is done through an email approval process. The administrative contact receives an email noting the requested transfer, and must reply from the email address listed in the domain's record with approval. Sometimes the administrative contact is either not at the company anymore, or the original email address they used to register the domain is no longer active. In either event a cumbersome, time consuming process may have to take place to reassign the administrative contact manually.

Unfortunately these kinds of snags are often overlooked until just before a site is supposed to go live. The potential delays can be extremely frustrating. This is why we try to uncover the status of a company's domain name at the earliest possible opportunity when staring a project.


Figuring out the best scenario for hosting the three elements (domain name, website and email) is usually determined on a case-by-case basis. In some cases we host all three aspects in others we may only host the website itself. Email is one of the key factors in deciding who will host each piece. Many companies host their own email. When this is the case we simply need to point the domain's MX record to the company's internal email server. If the company also hosts their own domain name we will usually have them point the domain's www record to our web server. If they don't host their domain we usually will look into moving the domain to our DNS server on RackSpace and then point the email (MX) record back to the company's email sever. Whatever structure is ultimately best, modifications to the DNS records are necessary.