Moving accounts to Vortech/Matrix - What happens to mail?

[QuickStart]

Hi, I will be moving several of my client sites to my hosting account and would like to know how this will affect mail? Is there a way to transfer mail from the other hosting provider account?

Sam

[Brangwyn]

Generally speaking theres no simple and reliable way to transfer mail thats already sitting in one mailbox to another mailbox on a different server, especially if your also trying to change nameservers around at the same time.

The easiest thing would be for your customers to download all their email locally using any one of the zillion email clients available.

[jmbeach]

you can also advise them that while the new nameservers are propagating, they can use a webmail client, if your old host has one. That's the most reliable way to get mail that may be lost during those couple of days.

[QuickStart]

Is there a way to publish the websites on Vortech servers before the DNS transfer takes place. It worked very well with the primary account. Just not sure how to do this with the client accounts... I used the IP address before, but since they all have the same IP, I don't know exactly how to do this.

Thanks.

You can use the IP of the site to FTP the stuff up... If you want to view it, you have two options:

1) Use the instant alias

2) Switch the site to a dedicated IP, view the site, switch it back...

Use option (2) if your service domain isn't propagated; If your service domain is moved, then you can use option (1).

As for mail... Mail will probably end up in both places during the transition, so you'll want to setup your clients with two accounts, using the IP addresses of the mail servers to ensure you get all your mail. Once the propagation takes place, just remove the older account and either leave the other setup with the IP or switch it to the domain name... No biggie there.

[QuickStart]

O.k. I'm not familiar with the "lingo".... service domain?

Do you mean that if I switch an account to having it's own IP, I can then publish to that IP and then switch it back?

When the DNS transfer takes place (sometime in the next 72 hours) then it'll work?

Thanks for the help. It's a little new to me.

Your "Service Domain" is the main domain that you setup for your account. This is what your nameservers, instant aliases, etc are based on. If you didn't set one up... you'll want to refer to the StepByStep guide... This assumes you are using HSphere: http://matrixreseller.com/stepbystep

If your on CPanel, your client domains dont really depend on your main domain, but we still refer to it as the service domain, since if you decide to delete it, you'll lose access to your WHM

And Yes, Switching to IP, publishing, and switch back works great.

[QuickStart]

Thanks for the clarification. I have set up a service domain and about 10 additional domains with different plans. I did not give any of them there own IP (although, I did see that option in CPANEL). My previous host did not have this option, so I've never done this before (obviously).

I am going to give it a try. Thanks so much for your help. Could you reality check me once again...

1. Give the domain it's own IP address (Cpanel)
2. FTP or "publish" website to the IP address (Frontpage)
3. Change the IP address back to it's original ( Cpanel - same IP as my service domain).

4. Wait for DNS changes to propogate.

5. VOILA!

Yep looks right.

[QuickStart]

Any idea how many IP addresses are allowed on a Cypher II plan?

[Brangwyn]

H-Sphere's Cypher plan has 5, I'd hesitate a guess that the cPanel CypherII plan has somewhere around that number also.

IPs for Cpanel are 1$/mo... and only for SSL sites.

[Brangwyn]

Doh, guessed way wrong.... sorry

[QuickStart]

O.k. so I won't be using the "change IP method". I wasn't able to change the accounts to have their own IP.

So, are there any other options? I just want to make sure the website files for all of my accounts are on the vortech servers when the DNS propagation takes place. I've already changed the DNS servers so I'm hoping that someone can give me some advice...

If I publish to the IP address do I need to add directory information:

e.g.:
ipaddress/domainname/home

Sam

[Brangwyn]

I wasn't able to change the accounts to have their own IP.

Why not ? if you received a "Generic Error" from the control panel then the server is just out of IP's and needs some more added, a Trouble Ticket submitted will fix this. If you received some other sort of error then submitting a trouble ticket will see that resolved also.