Can I Transfer My Hosting Service?

I came across an interesting question in an online forum the other day regarding email hosting. The original poster was asking: "Is there a way to transfer my email hosting to another provider?" - due to problems with their current provider. A common misconception in email/website hosting is that it is often too difficult to switch providers. However the reality is that it can be quite simple to change. In today's blog post, we review how you can change your email hosting provider.

First Step: Back up!

First and foremost, before you look to change any of your email settings, ensure that you take a back-up of your emails. If you are using a POP connection or IMAP connection, this can be as easy as doing a send-and-receive on your email client to ensure that you have an up-to-date copy of all your emails.

Second Step: Direct

Now to changing your email provider. Essentially, you can point your domains to any email provider that you want to use. You simply need to point the "MX records" in your Domain Manager to the access points of your email provider - most providers will provide step-by-step instructions of how to do this on their website. What you are doing is adding an entry to your domain to tell it where it needs to direct email traffic.

To look at this process in another way - your domain name is a "lookup" for everything related to that domain name online; such as your website and emails. When people send you an email, or go to your website, they ask your domain name where they need to direct traffic to send an email or view your website. Entries in your domain register will keep addresses of the computers handling your website/emails. So to change the location of your emails (or your website) you simply need to change the "pointer" that let's people/computers know where to direct your emails.

Third Step: Wait

Once you update these records for your domain name, it may take up to 48 hours for these changes to "propagate" (in other words for all the Internet address books to be updated with your new email details) - so it can often be best to change over your email during quiet times. In reality, however, I have often found that this occurs much sooner than 48 hours.

So if you're looking to change your email provider/email system - be assured that it is possible.

If you need assistance or advice in revising your current email options, please Contact Us.

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