Transferring domain name to DASP from Earthlink

Apparently this is not trivial, at least if I'm reading correctly. I wonder why? For example, I read here: http://help.godaddy.com/article/1592 a bunch of stuff that has to happen.

So my first question for DiscountASP.net (DASP): if I have a domain name with Earthlink (EL), and they have it registered with Network Solutions, but I have an account with Network Solutions (I don't pay NS, but I have an account), is Earthlink or I responsible for my domain name registration? If Earthlink, I can see perhaps they could give DASP a hard time if I want to move my domain name to DASP. But if I have an account with Network Solutions, I don't see Earthlink can do anything about me wanting to go to DASP to host this domain name.

My second question: if I change to DASP from EL, there will be a transition period when some DNS servers are still pointing to the old address at EL, so in theory and perhaps in practice I will lose some emails, yes? I don't mind--just an honest answer is appreciated. I intend to tell all my clients I will be switching to DASP and for them to be patient--and they don't mind either. I don't get a lot of email from strangers anyway, so it's not a big deal. Also, can I set up a DASP account with my domain name, but without DASP changing the DNS servers? I think the answer (I'm almost sure) is "yes", since I asked customer service this once, but want to confirm. That is, once I'm ready for the DNS server (update) transfer to take place, I tell DASP, they tell the DSN server people (Network Solutions) to change from Earthlink to DiscountASP, a few emails get dropped by "old" DNS servers that are cached and/or don't have the correct pointer, and in a few days things settle down and I start getting my emails delivered to the domain name hosted by DASP. But if I want, I can continue to have EL host the domain name, and the DNS servers will not be updated until such time that I instruct DASP to do so. Confirmation of this kindly requested.

My final question: I am not going to do any programming with this domain--it's for a business I run and it just has a static HTML page and I accept email of course sent to it. So I don't need ASP.NET, correct? Right now Earthlink has it running under some Unix OS, since PHP runs on it. What would be the Windows equivalent? Do I need Windows 2008 Server to host such a simple HTML page? I think that's correct but need confirmation.

PJ

 

As Eric touched on, the key to not losing any mail or web traffic or anything else during a move is to allow a period of overlap where both the old and the new account are active.

DNS updates used to take days to propagate, though now most changes happen in minutes. But DNS propagation is a funny thing, and there are still outposts on the Internet that are slow to respond. I helped someone switch their email over to Gmail recently, and they continued to receive email at the old server for a week! Not much mail, mind you, but the last piece hit the old box 9 days after we changed the MX records for the domain. So you never know.

The longer you can leave the old account open, the better. You don't have to lose any mail or web traffic.

OPTIONAL GEEK CONTENT: If you know your way around DNS you can set your
domain's TTL to a very low number a couple of days before any changes
and that will help force quicker propagation.​

 

Good I think I am starting to get it...but more questions

I think I get it now. I just checked Network Solutions (NS) (which I had confused with ICANN) and yes I do have the power to switch to DASP since I have an an account with NS. NS even has a nice little website app to allow you to switch the DNS servers to point to DiscountASP (DASP). So everything looks good for me to switch from Earthlink (EL) to DASP.

But now here's my question on a basic email account (static HTML page with email, for my domain name "MyDomainNameHere.com", now hosted by Earthlink): Aliases, but different than maybe you think.

QUESTION HERE: I have checked out the SmarterMail web app and it looks good, I use it now for my programming domain hosted by DASP. Very nice and well, except for one minor thing that I'm now doing at "MyDomainNameHere.com" which is hosted by Earthlink: at EL, you can set up "temporary anonymous email accounts" that work as follows. You click on a button and EL will set up accounts with prefixes that are random strings that always end in "mypacks.net", such as: "[email protected]", "[email protected]", etc etc (up to six such accounts are allowed by EL). How can I replicate this (can I even do this?) at DASP? Not the 'click on button' part but the hard part: getting the suffix randomized. That is, if I set up "MyDomainNameHere.com" at DASP, I'll be able to set up multiple email accounts but they will all end in "MyDomainNameHere"--which a smart spammer can figure out who owns it and start spamming me. BTW I like the EL feature because when you rent property you get a lot of strange people emailing you from Craigslist (they all tend to be out-of-towners, LOL), and it's easier after you rent the property to simply delete your "temporary anonymous email account" rather than try and spam filter it from these various kooks, who will continue to email you even months after the ad was posted.

I have a feeling this "random suffix" is not possible on DASP. If it is, please let me know how. I guess if it's not possible I can always setup temporary email accounts with Hotmail, Yahoo email, or Google GMail, and then abandon them, but it's just a bit more hassle that way.

This is not a burning question, so anytime even after the holidays any answer appreciated.

Happy Holidays DASP staff--you are doing great work IMO.

 

I'm afraid that we do not have a system to set up addresses with randomized usernames on a separate email-only domain.