I currently have a domain that was created years ago by and hosted by earthlink. With their recent price increase I want to move away from them. I already have an account with Hub for a website that I manage for a friend.
What are the steps I need to do to migrate all functions (register, hosting, email, ftp, etc)? I see various detailed articles but I am not sure of the overall process, timing, testing, etc.. And very confused about unlocking and name server changes. In looking at c-panel in earthlink I see a page to edit the zone file but nothing called name server - it has:
Name Type Value
IN A an IP Address
ftp IN A an IP Address
mail IN A an IP Address
pop IN A an IP Address
smtp IN A an IP Address
webmail IN A an IP Address
mail IN A an IP Address
autodiscover IN A an IP Address
IN MX 10mxxxz.carrierzone.com
IN MX 100mxxxz.carrierzone.com
IN MX 110mxxxz.carrierzone.com
IN MX 120mxxxz.carrierzone.com
Although I have never worked within Earthlink's interface, I was able to find an article describing how to work with their domain records in Google. It appears to have a separate tab for Name Server management. This will allow you to point to our name servers.
As for assistance with moving files, we can help with specific questions you have with the articles as you go along, simply add a comment there or ask them here. We will be glad to assist.
As for time frame, other than the propagation time required after pointing a domain name to new name servers (usually around 24 hours or so) any changes you make as far as moving files, etc will take place immediately.
For the time involved in moving a site, it can depend on what the site has in it (databases, email addresses, forwarders, regular files, etc) but if everything goes smoothly, you should be able to get it done in a single afternoon.
Most testing will not be able to be done properly until the domain name is pointed to the name servers. From there you will simply be visiting the site and email addresses as you previously did to ensure they act the same,
Kindest Regards,
Scott M
Can you provide me a link to the article you found?
Thank you for the link - after reading it I checked my earthlink control panel and did not see the icons to unlock the domain or change the name servers so contacted them and was told that with their web hosting business you need to call them directly to have changes made.
So is this a correct summary of the steps needed to migrate from earthlink to Hub?
Call earthlink and have the domain unlocked so that the domain management can be migrated to Hub
Go into the HUB AMP and initiate a domain transfer - may take 10 days. This is just transfering who manages the domain for renews.
At this point will I be able to start uploading my web pages to hub and test them with a temp url? Do I first set up a ftp user id? Where do I get the url to ftp files too and test with?
When do I set up email user ID's
When I have tested the web pages as best as possible with the temp url I call earthlink and have them make the name server changes. This could take up to 72 hours for the change to be proergated. During this time emails could go to either old earthlink servers, or the new hub servers so I would need to check both.
When I feel everything is working correctly I call earthlink back and cancel my account.
Do I have this all in the correct order? Am I missing any steps?
You may want to have the name servers pointed to us prior to unlocking and initiating the domain transfer. This will allow you to use your actual domain name for testing within 24 hours as opposed to waiting for a complete transfer and then changing the name servers.
You can initiate the transfer either before or after you move files, it has no effect on the site itself.
You can always use the Temp URL to test files if you choose to not point the name servers first. Keep in mind, however, you will not be able to receive emails to this server yet, and it is possible that some code will give errors or the site may display incorrectly using it. Once the domain name is pointed properly, however, you will be able to use/test emails and the site should display as it does on the current server.
After initiating your transfer, you can go ahead and begin to move files (using the TEMP URL or regular domain name, depending on what you did previously).
Using the FTP guide, you will see you can either use the domain name or the server name as the host name for connection. The username and password are the same as your cPanel.
For emails you will set them up via the cPanel. They will not function until the domain name is pointed to our name servers (they can send, but not receive.) You can set them up at anytime, however.
You can then test your site, either with the TEMP URL or the domain name, depending on if you have pointed the name servers or not.
Once satisfied with how things are working, point the name servers if you have not done so.
Note that once the domain transfer is initiated, you will not be able to point the name servers to us using Earthlink. You will have to wait for the transfer to complete. That is why I recommend that you point before the transfer is initiated.
Overall it appears you have a good hold on the process.
If I have the name servers pointed first as you suggest, how do I create the email accounts in AMP for the domain I am transferring and get the temp URL /FTP address to upload the webpages. My understanding is that the domain will not show up in AMP until I do the transfer.
The domain name itself will not show up in the AMP until it is transferred, but that is only needed for billing purposes. For example, if you purchased a domain name from somewhere else and just pointed it to us, it would not appear in the AMP, but you could still set it up in the cPanel.
The server (on the cPanel) is already set up for your primary domain name. It just cannot be reached due to the name servers being pointed elsewhere. You are still able to create emails and upload files without issue.
(The TEMP URL is a bit of a misnomer, it should be called ALT URL since it always exists and points to the same home directory as when the domain name is pointed to the name servers.)
Got it - was confusing cPanel and AMP. Tested creating a addon domain and see that it puts all the files.accounts under the primary domain. What happens to my addon domains if I need to remove the Primary domain and transfer it to another provider?
The primary domain is required in order to identify your account. It doesn't necessarily need to be an active domain, but there will need to be some domain name set to primary for as long as your account is active. Again, this can be a "place-holder" name, but that will be up to you. You can also change the prirmary domain as needed.
