Hosting (again)

[Jeff Gaines]

In between re-installing PCs I tried to move my hosting from Heart
Internet to Mythic Beasts a couple of weeks ago, so far it has been a
disaster.

I opened a ticket with Heart, set out what I wanted to do and asked how to
do it. I had a couple of replies which didn't seem to have much relevance
to my question then they stopped replying to the tickets. In the meantime
they have taken payment for the renewal. Apparently they are now part of a
group that includes Go Daddy, don't know if that is good or bad.

I also contacted Mythic Beasts by email and they pointed me to an
instruction page which said I needed to go to my Heart control panel and
point various settings to my Mythic Beasts account. They have been very
patient but I have no idea what I'm doing and it strikes me I could
completely screw it, up but they don't seem to offer any other option.

I need to get away from Heart but it needs to be to somebody who will deal
with the transfer for me. On that basis any suggestions? I need 3 x
domains hosted but I'm not bothered by a website so email hosting is
sufficient.

--
Jeff Gaines Dorset UK
There is absolutely no substitute for a genuine lack of preparation

[Andy Burns]

Jeff Gaines wrote:

> I need to get away from Heart

All you need Heart to do, is change
the IPSTAG on your domain to "MYTHIC-BEASTS"

That doesn't alter anything immediately, but it allows you to "pull" the
domain over to MB

[Philip Herlihy]

In article <l0t24a...@mid.individual.net>, Andy Burns wrote...

I had to look that up (Nominet does things its own way):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Provider_Security

You can, of course, have a domain registered with one registrar/host and served
by another. The easiest way is to look up the nameservers on your preferred
host (Mythic Beasts in your case) and edit the settings on the current domain
registrar to use those. That means every lookup, whether web or email (or
whatever) is directed immediately to Mythic Beasts, just as if you'd registered
the domain with them. It's a quick fix which should work quickly, and globally
within 24 hours. I do this when my excellent small ISP (Liquidsix) doesn't
happen to offer the registration of esoteric top-level domains, but I still
want to host with them.

You could also change the MX record in the Heart DNS records to point to Mythic
Beasts, but the nameserver change has less options for screw-ups - e.g. you'd
want the SPF TXT record (etc) consistent.

--

Phil, London

[Theo]

Philip Herlihy <Phillip...@slashdevnull.invalid> wrote:
> In article <l0t24a...@mid.individual.net>, Andy Burns wrote...
> >
> > Jeff Gaines wrote:
> >
> > > I need to get away from Heart
> >
> > All you need Heart to do, is change
> > the IPSTAG on your domain to "MYTHIC-BEASTS"
> >
> > That doesn't alter anything immediately, but it allows you to "pull" the
> > domain over to MB
>
> I had to look that up (Nominet does things its own way):
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Provider_Security

The process for a .uk:
https://www.heartinternet.uk/support/article/how-do-i-transfer-my-uk-domain-name-away-to-a-new-host.html

For another domain:
https://www.heartinternet.uk/support/article/how-do-i-transfer-my-gtld-domain-name-out-of-my-account.html

> You can, of course, have a domain registered with one registrar/host and served
> by another. The easiest way is to look up the nameservers on your preferred
> host (Mythic Beasts in your case) and edit the settings on the current domain
> registrar to use those. That means every lookup, whether web or email (or
> whatever) is directed immediately to Mythic Beasts, just as if you'd registered
> the domain with them. It's a quick fix which should work quickly, and globally
> within 24 hours. I do this when my excellent small ISP (Liquidsix) doesn't
> happen to offer the registration of esoteric top-level domains, but I still
> want to host with them.
>
> You could also change the MX record in the Heart DNS records to point to Mythic
> Beasts, but the nameserver change has less options for screw-ups - e.g. you'd
> want the SPF TXT record (etc) consistent.

You can do all of that but you're still paying Heart for the domain
registration. The OP wants a clean break.

Although the above may be useful to minimise downtime, ie get everything set
up at the new place so the switch doesn't change the hosting arrangements.
But not necessary and may overcomplicate it.

Theo

[Philip Herlihy]

In article <+eA*S+...@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk>, Theo wrote...

As I remember the thread, the OP was saying that Heart weren't coming through,
and had already taken payment for another year. Changing nameservers is a
quick (and very easy) way to get things working NOW with the new hosting
provider. Easily updated later - and he has a year to do that. Domain
registration and hosting are independent; we usually go to the same service
provider for both, but in some circumstances (like a stalled transfer of
registration) this is an easy workaround.

--

Phil, London

[Theo]

Philip Herlihy <Phillip...@slashdevnull.invalid> wrote:
> As I remember the thread, the OP was saying that Heart weren't coming through,
> and had already taken payment for another year. Changing nameservers is a
> quick (and very easy) way to get things working NOW with the new hosting
> provider. Easily updated later - and he has a year to do that. Domain
> registration and hosting are independent; we usually go to the same service
> provider for both, but in some circumstances (like a stalled transfer of
> registration) this is an easy workaround.

I believe if you do a domain transfer you get the time on your current
registration plus an additional year (that you pay the new provider for).
In other words, you may have 364 days left on the registration but you can
transfer today and you get 364+365 days before the next renewal.

So there's no reason not to do a transfer as far as the domain goes - you
don't lose anything you already paid for. You would lose any hosting you
paid for[*], but if your current host isn't working for you then you will
presumably want to be shot of them anyway.

Theo

[*] technically you wouldn't lose it, but you wouldn't have the domain
attached to it so it wouldn't be doing anything useful. If you had another
domain you could move it to the old host to 'use up' the paid-for hosting, I
suppose. They could also give you a pro-rata refund of the hosting you
aren't using, which they can't do for domains.

[Daniel James]

On 19/01/2024 15:07, Theo wrote:
> I believe if you do a domain transfer you get the time on your current
> registration plus an additional year (that you pay the new provider for).
> In other words, you may have 364 days left on the registration but you can
> transfer today and you get 364+365 days before the next renewal.

I'm thinking of moving a domain myself, so I've been looking into this.

I don't think there's a hard-and-fast rule, but it seems common allow
transfer of a .uk domain without making a charge, though collecting the
fee for an extra year's registration seems common for other TLDs.

That's for the new host. The old host may try to hold your domain
hostage by charging to change the IPS tag ... but any decent hosting
company will do this for nothing (but if they were a decent hosting
company why would you want to leave?)

--
Cheers,
Daniel.