Is a domain name transfer required or can I just link to old domain name without transferring?

Question

I have two domain names (www.abc.com and www.xyz.com) which are hosted using say a company called Old-Host. Now, the hosting plan has expired and they have taken down all data residing in their servers without giving me enough time to get back to them. As a result only the domain names are active (abc.com and xyz.com), however data is lost and the site does not load.

I researched and found this new hosting company, lets call NewHost to be appropriate and they allow multiple domains also.

My question is, should I transfer those old two domains (abc.com and xyz.com) over to the new hosting company NewHost, or can I still let those old domain names reside with OldHost and have my data in NewHost refer to those domain names?

Example, I just sign up only for hosting space at NewHost (no domain name purchased), and I configure such that when I enter www.abc.com (which was registered by OldHost) the data is collected from NewHost? Is such a configuration possible, or should I have domain name transfer effected for this to happen?

Answer 1

What you are trying to do is technically possible, however it all depends on how the OldHost will handle it.

If your old host allow you to keep your account to just manage the DNS settings yourself, you can make it to simply point to the NewHost, and it will work just fine.

If your old host does not allow you to keep your domain and only handle dns settings, you should transfer those domains to another service to keep managing them, you can either move them to the NewHost, or move them to an individual domain registrar service.

I doubt that the old host has deleted the files, it just stopped access to the server until you pay, most hosts do this.

Answer 2

Hosting can easily be separated for name-serving but be sure that you have and are paying for both!

Your site may be hosted anywhere and that is what the hosting plan is for. Your new and old domains need to be registered somewhere and that place lets you set the DNS to whichever server you want. For most cases, you will set the DNS point to your host. This can be new DNS in the NewHost or in the OldHost is you have registered the name with them and are still paying your renewals.

It is a good thing that you checked that multiple domains are allowed because it is not always the case. Some places make you buy an extra service for additional domains.