Email issues when switching hosts... Anyone able to help?

2 replies
I have a friend who was suckered into have his ugly site created and maintained by a company that's charging him an outrageous sum for hosting and 10 email accounts.

With a little coaxing, he realized he could do a better job with a simple WP installation and buying his own hosting.

He originally purchased the domain himself via GoDaddy and decided to set up hosting there, too. He also paid them for email accounts.

Right now, everything is still set up with the old host (until the end of the month). He hasn't switched the site over yet.

Okay, that's the background. Here are the questions...

What does he need to do to move the email accounts from his current host to GoDaddy?

How can he move the email accounts from host to host without losing any of the saved/archived/old mail? This is critical due to the nature of some of his communications.

He's in over his head and I've volunteered to do what I can. I've set up a plenty of sites on other hosts and on GoDaddy, but I've never had to move email accounts for anyone by myself.

I would be forever indebted to anyone willing to "hold my hand" as he/she walked me through the process.

Before you answer... No, there's no way he'd use another email provider. No, there's no way to talk him out of GoDaddy. Everyone in his office accesses their mail via Outlook. I have full access to his GoDaddy account but no access to the existing hosting provider (at this point) and I don't know how "open" their system is to customers. Due to his cancellation, I don't know how cooperative their going to be, either.

Answers? Recommendations? Anything?

I know this is borderline for the main forum. If need be, mods, feel free to move it elsewhere. It IS how he makes money and it ISN'T really a design question...

Anyway, I hope someone can give me a hand.

Thanks in advance.

Carson
#email #hosts #issues #switching
  • Profile picture of the author jacktackett
    Carson,

    I don't have much experience with godaddy, but in general your friend needs to switch DNS at least 3 days (72 hours) before the old hosting goes dark. This is because it can take up to 72 hours for DNS info - including the MX records - to propagate around the 'Net.

    Copying stored email is a completely different can of worms. IF the MTAs are the same versions between old host and new host - copying certain OS and data files will transfer things. These files differ depending on the MTA, i.e. various flavors of sendmail vs qmail etc.

    The biggest issue is I doubt - but don't know for certain - that your friend will have access to the underlying OS at godaddy unless he's selected a VPS or dedicated server.

    The best you might be able to do is set up all the necessary accounts at godaddy and forward the emails from the old host or from the end users mail reader to the godaddy accounts. If DNS has not propegate yet you can setup a name in your local windows/system32/drivers/etc/hosts file and point it to the godaddy ip address of your new server.

    But without direct access to the file systems of both hosts, transferring the emails in bulk is beyond my skill level - someone else hopefully knows how to do that.

    Good luck,
    --Jack
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  • Profile picture of the author BigRedNotebook
    Jack-

    Thanks a lot. The 3 day DNS switch was very helpful.

    I'll be honest, you're talking a little above my head on some of the rest... But with a little research and your guidance, I'll undoubtedly make strides in the right direction.

    Anyone else with guidance?
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