An Problem when moving websites from one provider to the next, the domain cannot be reached for a good 48 hours. The use of external domains could help. A field report.

Best of HR – Berufebilder.de®

Change when the web host is bad

One or the other noticed it in the past week and also last week: Best of HR - Berufebilder.de®.de hangs a bit. Even hard last weekend. It now follows that I am near Future want to change my web host.

For some time now I have been annoyed by the poor performance of my webhosting package, which, despite its own server, sometimes results in server failures and inaccessibility, of which not only the website but also eMail and FTP access are concerned.

In addition, there is a really lousy customer service, where the supportTeam bursting with ignorance and actually only available when it suits him - that is, despite the alleged 24/7 service hotline, for example not on weekends. The only question is: where to go?

Higher traffic equals server congestion?

At first I was inclined to blame the downtimes for higher demand. Because the ARD reportin which I was seen, not only has a lively discussion on Best of HR – Berufebilder.de® and on the net, but also drove the number of traffic significantly - a trend that continues today.

But the failures of the weekend were not just the rise of normal user numbers, there were other reasons:

  1. Increased views; Apparently, an online marketing company that is by no means unreliable produced very high numbers of hits on my site. I have no idea what's behind this.
  2. Server error: That alone was not the problem, there was also an error on the server, apparently a setting thing with the update to WordPress 3.9.1. could have had to do. Anyway, I was not alone affected.
  3. Manpower: Since my web host, a very agile, but also small 1-man-enterprise of such incidents, in short, a little annoyed, I would like to change the web host.

Downtime at domain move

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However, what has prevented me from switching providers so far was above all the problem of the domain relocation:

For the period in which a domain is moved from one provider to another, so at least 48 hours, the website and - much worse - the eMailServer then unreachable.

What are the advantages of external domains?

The advantages are on the Hand: In the future I can change servers and hosting providers in practically a few minutes. The entire domain transfer procedure is no longer necessary - in most cases, only the name servers of the new provider have to be entered at the domain registrar.

If you can believe this post on Netzwelt, which otherwise has some research errors, then this separation of domain and web hosting in the US is completely normal. In Europe, on the other hand, it is still a rarity, although this possibility is offered by a number of providers.

Jump - but where to go?

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The question is: With which Webhoster have just larger pages and blogs had good experiences? I am not only concerned about technical equipment, but also about customer service.

How good is the accessibility of the hotline?

  1. How long does it take for the customer to be helped in such cases?
  2. What if the page is down at the weekend or at night, ie how long does it take to get help
  3. come from?
  4. What are your other experiences? Write it all in the comments!
  5. Thank you in advance for the help!

The provider: The agony of choice

However, I found it recently Solution for this problem: The use of external domains. The domains are registered with a provider and then forwarded to the web hosting provider, where they work as desired.

My Choice much on the Cologne provider Host Europe - less because of the good price-performance ratio and more because of their willingness to support my web hosting as a sponsor in the future.

The costs

Although Host Europe requires less 60 cents a month per domain than my previous web host, but according to Netzwelt there are even cheaper providers.

The setup at Host Europe is also a bit more complex: It is done via the so-called AUTO-DNSSystem, where you have to enter the secondary DNS profile.

How do external domains work?

Ultimately, however, this was also for me as a beginner. It was significantly more difficult to consult the relevant data with the current provider for the domain relocation as well as the domains correspond to cancel - especially since the supporthotline of the offerer made only contradictory to false information.

Now I have explained at length and in detail why external domains useful are. The second part is about the setup, which is easier than expected.

Domain move: Half cost, double speed

My site has been quite unintentionally moved by my readers last weekend: The site is now hosted at a special provider for WordPress.

But not only that, he also gave me lots of helpful tips for setting it up competently helped. The site now runs twice as much on a shared hosting plan for less than half the price fast as before on the managed server at 1blu. A big thank you for that!

So that if I can, but should be necessary, move the next time faster, my domains are now at Host Europe, which also support me as a sponsor.

Setting up external domains step by step

Setting up the external domain was actually quite simple - easier than expected anyway:

  1. First, cancel the domains at the old provider. This leads then with the Denic the appropriate procedure and one then automatically the Authcode transmitted.
  2. You have to enter this into the field provided when you register the domains with the new provider. After that the domain removal was done in a few minutes. However, according to a Host Europe employee, this should take longer for domains that do not run under top-level-domain.com.
  3. The re-registration of domains eliminates the steps 1 + 2.
  4. If the domains are with the new provider for the first time, they can be redirected to the web hosting package using an auto DNS system. This is far less complicated than it looks in the Host Europe FAQ: In my case I only needed the secondary IP address to redirect the website and my new provider's mail server for the MX record.
  5. These were entered as A Resource Record. An A resource record is used to assign an IPv4 address to a DNS name. There are also AAAA resource records, which work like the A Resource Records, but IP addresses for IPv6. These are however not supported by my Webhoster.
  6. In addition, I also created a wildcard entry after the sample * .exampleadresse.de. This allows to set up subdomains directly at my webhost.
  7. In addition, the mail server of the web host is entered as an MX record, so that the eMails be forwarded. Host Europe also offers a variety of facilities eMailAddresses for forwarding. A catch-all function for forwarding the eMailUnfortunately, Host Europe does not offer it anymore to avoid spam, but it looks different with other providers.
  8. Once the domains have been set up, they are also available on the target server quite quickly and can be used there as normal domains. One advantage of my change of provider was in this context, that the setting up of external domains with the new provider neither costs arise nor contract terms have to be respected. At 1blu the unfortunately looked different and also with many larger offerers costs an external domain ebensoviel like a normal domain.
  9. Also the decor of the eMail-Postfaches worked relatively smoothly.

Why external domains are practical

If the website has to move again, I do not have to manage a domain move, but only the DNS entries change.

A practical matter. Disconnecting domains and web hosting is something I can only recommend.


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