My client already has email setup with a provider but would like their website hosted by a different provider. Currently they just have a NS record pointed at the company that hosts their email. I used dig to grab their two MX records, otherwise they don't have any other records set. They are using Network Solutions as their domain registrar so I'll have to use Network Solutions advanced DNS tool to make the changes.
I was planning on doing the following:
1. Change the NS to point at Network Solutions (this is a requirement of their Advanced DNS)
2. Make sure the MX records point at the old email host
3. Add A records for the new website host
When I click the edit advanced DNS button in the Network Solutions control panel it says the following:
"Please Note: When you Move Name Servers to Network Solutions, your Existing Name Servers will no longer be used. As a result, Web sites and E-mail from other providers will be lost."
That last word has me kind of concerned. Will all the previous emails actually be "lost" or are they saying that email sent during the change over might be lost?
Best Answer
Contrary to what Wooble says, the wording is quite sensible. The case that it addresses, of course, is fairly obvious with a little thought: Someone adjusts the name server records to switch from another company's content DNS hosting service to Network Solutions' content DNS hosting service without copying any of the existing other records across, and all of a sudden HTTP and SMTP go awry, as the world at large is no longer told the right places to contact for these services.
Yes, people sometimes do not know that it's necessary to transfer the database across from one publisher to another when one switches publishers.
And contrary to what spacehunt says, things will not soft fail if you switch the servers before copying the database. In the absence of
MXresource records, SMTP Relay clients will fall back toAandAAAAresource records, per RFC 2821 § 5. They won't be there, of course, since you haven't copied them over either. The SMTP Relay clients will bounce all queued mail as undeliverable. Soft failures occur in the event that DNS query resolution fails to get an answer at all, not in the event that query resolution succeeds and gives a zero records answer.In a similar vein, do you know that it isn't necessary to switch DNS hosting companies if all that you want to do (This is what you've told us.) is point HTTP service somewhere else? As you've explained it, what you're doing seems entirely unnecessary. You have company A providing SMTP mail service and content DNS service for the client, and company B providing content HTTP service. To make company B's services known to the world, it's not necessary at all to replace company A with a company C — Network Solutions. Just go to the current content DNS service provider and enter the necessary
AandAAAAresource records into the database.