Okay, thanks. I like what I'm hearing so far.
The Chicago DC is Hurricane Electric, right? I really, really love the Montreal DC (fast, stable, great connectivity), but HE is a great outfit, too. They're one of the elder statesmen in this business.
In any case, there's a right way and a wrong way to do this; and since this is no emergency (I'm perfectly happy with my existing Bodhost service), I want to do it the right way.
Aside from moving the domains to a new registrar (who do you use for domain registration, anyway, or is Bodhost ICANN accredited independently?), I like to drastically shorten the SOA's, TTL's, retries, refreshes, and expires on the retiring server a few weeks prior to the move. This would waste resources under normal circumstances, but it minimizes client-side DNS caching prior to a planned move.
I've found that previous visitors often are unable to access sites after an IP change, even if the new servers are working splendidly, unless the users are savvy enough to flush their local DNS caches. Reducing the times on the retiring DNS a few weeks in advance forces frequent DNS calls, which is resource-expensive, but minimizes the caching problem.
In addition, I also like to leave the old server running for a few days after the move, with the DNS pointing to the new server's IP, just to avoid downtime while slow ISP's update their DNS servers.
Like I said, my present registrar (formerly IYD, then Tucows, now Hover) is in a state of extreme chaos right now, so I have to do things carefully. The new Hover control panel has almost no functionality, so even simple things like changing nameserver IP's require a ticket -- and they're running a week behind on tickets!
I was thinking about using GoDaddy as a new registrar, but feel free to pitch me on your own registration services. I have 30+ domains to transfer. What can ya do for me?
Thanks,
Richard
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