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Michael Giovanni Pumo
Michael Giovanni Pumo

Reputation: 14784

How can I put a new website live but keep the clients existing email system?

I'm pretty sure this is a straight up DNS question. Easy for most I imagine.

I have only ever changed DNS (nameservers) to point to a new website, but never pointed JUST the domain to a new place.

My client has hosting and email with company 'X'. I have developed (and wish to host) their new website on my hosting server 'Y' (a reseller account through Media Temple).

However, I don't wish to also host their email.

Their domain is registered through 123-reg where I can change a number of DNS records. All I want to do is point to the new website and leave the email where it is. What records do I alter?

Many thanks for gritting your teeth through a pretty easy question I should already know the answer to (though I'm mainly a front-end dev and this is new to me).

Upvotes: 0

Views: 126

Answers (1)

Pekka
Pekka

Reputation: 449603

The records you want to change are called MX records.

If the domain remains with the old provider, something along the lines of this should work:

  1. Check with the new hosting provider that it's possible to serve a web site whose domain name is hosted elsewhere - some providers don't do this so you have to buy the domain from them. Make sure the new server is ready to serve the web site (ie. the domain is registered in their control panel etc.)

  2. Ask the new provider for the IP of the web server that is going to host your web site.

  3. Locate the right fields in your DNS settings and replace the old server's IP by the new one. The right fields will be named "A record", "www" and/or "CNAME". There may be more than one. For further info about which ones exactly, it's probably best to aks your old provider.

  4. Save your changes and wait.

It's generally probably a good idea to talk to both providers about your plan, and ask them for as much assistance as possible in this. Ideally, they will tell you what to set up where, which is always the safest way.

Also, generally, be careful, and if you're unsure about something, ask somebody - due to DNS caching, if something goes wrong here, it can lead to a multi-hour outage for some visitors.

Upvotes: 1

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