Domain reg transfer - will my site go down at all?

Question

My website is hosted on my own server, however the domain is registered with fasthosts and I want to change to a different provider.

Will i experience any downtime?

Solution 1

If you are not changing the hosting provider, you have almost no risk, the transfer can take up to 7 days for some registrar, but the way it work the domain will be at registrar 1, and when it complete it'll be at registrar 2, it won't be "lost" between them.

What I mean is that the first registrar will disable it at the exact moment the second one enable it, well it 99% of the case we've done transfer.

If however you change hosting too, then you must specify to the new registrar to change the DNS name as soon as the transfer is done, and you must make sure the file are already in the new hosting account, which can be accessed via his IP/~account-name

i.e: aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd/~8letters usually (depend on the type of server, Linux, Windows...)

Solution 2

Yes. During the time it takes for all the servers on the web to update your domains records there is a possibility they will continue to redirect to the old location you were pointing at. This can cause some errors to be displayed to people trying to visit. I've never seen this take more than 24 hours personally, but I'm told it can take up to 48 hours.

I wouldn't worry about it too much if you're only moving the domain name register and not the hosting as well.

Solution 3

Your website wont go down it you change the DNS entries before transfering it. ...

Comments

[Lèse majesté]

That's why it's best to keep the old site operational until the DNS changes propagate. Then there shouldn't be an interruption of service to users.

[Admin]

Thanks Dom, not changing hosting so this is good to hear!

[Andrew]

A belated welcome to W.SE... please see Dominique's answer above, as I suspect you are making a wrong assumption here! The OP is not changing DNS records.

[larry909]

@Lèsemajesté does your comment apply to when you are just changing the domain registrar but not changing the hosting?

[Lèse majesté]

@larry909 No. Changing the designated registrar of a domain is pretty much invisible to end users.