On 05/03/2013 21:19, Leo wrote:
> Thank you all, I'll take a look at the suggestions.
>
> I've got a follow up question too. How easy is it to switch registrars 
> if I wanted to switch my existing domains too? Or rather how easy is 
> it to switch the mail addresses I've got set up, as I presume 
> switching the domain registrations is reasonably straightforward? Will 
> they switch all my existing email addresses, or do I have to set them 
> up again?
>
I've done this the usual way in the past and it's been pretty painless.
Normally you get a transfer code from your old registrar and supply that 
to the new registrar with the transfer request, pay a small fee and 
everything transfers.
This time was a little different, but NOT because of the new registrar.
I'll describe my own experience moving from ukfsn to tsohost. Other 
changes may be a little different.
I moved because Jason at ukfsn was simply no longer responding to 
support requests .. I think the sole proprietor had quit. I'd been 
unable to renew domains and they were expiring fast.
I looked at a few providers and chose tsohost as I'd seen several 
recommendations. So far they've been good.
As I couldn't get any response from ukfsn, I mailed tsohost support for 
advice.  Initially I received the standard response, but I repeated the 
tricky bit and they advised going to Nominet to seize back my .uk 
domains. A small charge (12?) covered all the domains and they confirm 
carefully (I had to write a letter, scan and mail it, together with a 
proof of identity ditto (driving licence, services invoice, or the 
like). Once the domains were with Nominet, the change went ahead as normal.
Tsohost were not able to advise on my .com domains, but in that case, 
the ukfsn on-line management tools were working fine and supplied the 
transfer code when I unlocked the domains. Tsohost advised renewing 
before the transfer if there was less than 9 days to run, but I 
couldn't;  I personally had no problems, but I guess there's a good 
reason why they advise that.
Tsohost automatically renewed the expired domains as they transferred.
You can set up websites as you wish within the constraints of your 
subscription.
I had (I think) to set up a generic mailbox for each domain. They offer 
an option to upload some stuff by CSV (mail address and dns, maybe? I 
didn't use it). All my mail gets collected by fetchmail and that worked 
fine when I copied the ukfsn rules, setting the new server and account 
names as appropriate (the old pop3 account was just a login name, the 
new imap uses a login email address, which felt a little odd in the 
script, but worked fine).
If you want specific email redirects from tsohost, you can just add them 
via the management pages. Personally I do all those in my local postfix.
I have an slightly adapted wwwsync for my websites. I just changed the 
paths and login, and ran it. My first website on tsohost appeared. I 
have yet to transfer some others.  They offer several website toolsets 
and databases, etc. (Ruby-on-Rails, Wordpress, CodeIgniter, Concrete5, 
Coppermine, CubeCart, DocuWiki, Drupal, Elgg, Gallery, Joomla, etc...; 
MySQL, MSSQL[*]).
So far, everything I've done with tsohost has been pretty 
straightforward. I was a little apprehensive when I started as I have a 
bunch of odd setups, but everything I needed to do was there. Domain 
aliases, email accounts, ftp accounts, sub-domains, cron, dns, plus a 
bunch of other stuff.
[*] They offer several hosting platform options;   Their 'recommended' 
platform is Linux.
Gordon.
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