How to move a website and domain name without experiencing downtime for emails or site?

Question

Okay, I have a pretty complex problem, so I'll get right to it. I'm a designer who built a new website for my client. Their old site is hosted at GoDaddy, as well as their email. Problem is, the guy who built the original site decided to put the original domain name and hosting under HIS personal GoDaddy account. Well, that turned out to be a bad move for several reasons. Here's how it's all tied together.

The original domain name, www.domainoriginal.com, was actually purchased at Network Solutions. The original web designer pointed the nameservers from Network Solutions to his GoDaddy account, where the email and hosting is setup.

The new domain name, www.domainnew.com, was purchased under a new and separate GoDaddy account belonging to the company, and the new website was built under a 3rd party platform (Big Commerce). So, the www.domainnew.com is already pointed to the new website using A records at new GoDaddy account. All is fine there. However, they still need www.domainoriginal.com to point to the NEW website as well. (The old one can simply be deleted, it is NOT important). AND, they want to keep their old email addresses intact and working as well, but under the NEW GoDaddy account.

Obviously, I have no DNS control at Network Solutions, and I have no idea what kind of control I have at GoDaddy under the old account because the web designer will not let me see inside his account. But, he and GoDaddy both tell me nothing can be done other than to repoint the nameservers to Network Solutions, and then repoint the A record to my new website, www.domainnew.com, and point the MX Records to GoDaddy. I'm told the downtime would be 24-48 hours if I do this.

Ideally, we'd like to do a domain name transfer and get www.domainoriginal.com in the new GoDaddy account created by the company. But, I'm told this could take up to 7 days. Does this mean the site and email will be down for 7 days? And any emails sent during this time, would they be lost forever?

If I do this, how long could I expect the site and email to go down? And, will the emails be permanently lost? I've gotten different answers from everybody at GoDaddy so I kind of don't trust them anymore...

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thanks, Tyson

Answer 1

Domain Name Transfers will not affect your site at all. A transferred domain name will still point to whatever nameservers it was already pointing to. So you won't experience any down time because no matter who owns the domain, it still ends up pointing to the same nameserver. The 7 day process is about EPP keys and approvals, and it's really just more of a hassle.

Downtime occurs when you change nameservers or A records, if not performed correctly.

Answer 2

The easiest and best method is a GoDaddy to GoDaddy transfer (or "account change") which is detailed at http://help.godaddy.com/article/822. This should allow you to keep any associated email accounts intact (but no guarantees).

If you're transferring from anywhere else, kiss those accounts goodbye unless you can just change out the MX records.