mx records question...

[59Lespaul]

Moving a site from another dedicated host. Currently, our mx records are set to the domain / host. We want to set our mx records to be handled elsewhere / third party. What is the best course of action to minimize email downtime? Should I change the mx records now ( while the DNS / site is still running form the current host? Then once our site is set to go on Lunarpages server and we change the DNS to point to Lunarpages... how can I minimize email downtime? When changing the DNS, do I go into the control panel at Lunarpages and add the mx record there ( before it propagates? )

[jmoss]

You should be able to do this without any downtime. Below is a short overview of the steps you should take.

First, setup your mailboxes on your LP account to mirror your current host.
Next, go into your mail config on your old server and have it relay mail to the new LP host. Mail will now be directed to the new LP hosting.
Finally, switch your MX records to point to the LP host. Any message that hit your old server will be forwarded to the new LP hosting. This will prevent lost mail in the case that a mail server has a stale record.

[gavind]

We have done this in the past. We did a parallel one. Means that we have MX record live on two hosting providers. This means that there are now downtime.