Got a question about web-hosting companies; would appreciate some knowledge

[krispos42]

A family friend owns a small business with a website. She's thinking about changing the hosting company but she's worried that she'll lose her domain name and/or email addresses.

Anybody have any exerience with doing this?

[blogslut]

1. She shouldn't

ICANN made sure to put the kibosh on registrars/hosts who held domain names hostage when the user attempted to switch to another provider. Of course she doesn't have to transfer her domain name in order to change hosts. She can keep her original domain registrar and simply point her domain to her new DNS/hosting account. If she chooses to transfer her domain to a new host, odds are that host will also provide an email host, however, she will lose all the past emails that existed on her old host's server.

There are still, I think, a few shady, reseller discount hosts that offer webhosting with a "free" domain and that usually means the domain was registered by the host and belongs to the host and it will cost money to allow her to lease it in her name. I think there are a few of those type places still around but I'm not positive about that.

Mind you, hosting companies don't make it easy to transfer domain ownership to a new host. You gotta look around and tick all the right boxes.

Am I making any sense at all?

It would really be helpful if you could name the host your friend wants to leave.

[krispos42]

2. Yes, you're making sense :-)

And the redirect idea was a good one. I don't know her current host offhand; the website name is mineralevolution.com.

I'll mention this to her. She just might want to do the re-direct thing.

Thanks! :pals: