Transferring Old Website Domain

  • Unknown's avatar
    howardsupply · Member ·

    Hi,

    I have created a website for the company I work for and with the plan to upgrade the account and use our original websites domain.

    I have been holding out on upgrading while trying to figure out what I need to do to be able to use our current domain which is currently hosted by an outside company. The third party created the original website for us in 2007 and has not upgraded it all since then while continuing to charge a monthly fee of $50. They have not been very helpful and it appears they are attempting to make sure we still need them to host our site.

    I believe our business email has been setup through this 3rd party, none of my colleagues are very tech savvy and are unsure of how it is all setup as it was created over 10 years ago. I am curious what I need from them to allow us to keep the same domain and business email without still being tied into them and paying them monthly.

    Any advice would be highly appreciated.

    Thanks

  • supernovia · Staff ·

    Hey @howardsupply, would you be willing to share one of the email addresses you’re worried about? If you’ll type it here it will be hidden from public view so only staff can see it. And we can use that to see who the current mail provider is, the what it would take to transfer the site, etc.

    Also! I’m assuming you own the domain name directly and can update its settings or transfer it if needed, correct? If you’re not sure, we can try to check the domain ownership, too.

  • Unknown's avatar
    howardsupply · Member ·

    Sure. My company email is (email visible only to moderators and staff)

    I am unsure if we own the domain directly, I think it is all tied into our registrar maybe?

    I am pretty new to this and have only been with the company for about 1.5 years.

    It may be necessary to keep them as our registrar if our company computer systems are tied in completely but I am not sure and will have to get more information on Monday.

    I was told they needed us to send them the ip address to the new site and a few other things. I was too busy at work today to really dive into what they needed and I am just trying to get as much info as possible over the weekend to be better prepared when I go into work on Monday.

    Thanks again for your help!

  • deancroyal · Staff ·

    Hi there – Thanks for sharing that email with us. That tells us a lot. I’ve written a bunch below; read it all before doing anything further.

    Thanks to what you provided, we’re able to see what you’re working with here on WordPress.com and what you intend to use to replace your current company website.

    We can also see what your current company website looks like.

    We’re also able to look up publicly available information on your domain to see where your domain is registered (eNom Inc) and who is hosting your website and email (sageisland.com).

    Here’s what you’ll want to do next:

    1. Connect with your IT person (or whoever manages company email and other Internet assets) and let them know you are working on rebuilding the company site at WordPress.com. Share the information above about the domain registrar and website+email host (which they may know already).

    2. Because you will likely not change anything email related (which I too don’t recommend at this time), they will want to add our “IP Addresses” to “point” the domain to our servers here at WordPress.com *when you are ready to launch the new site.* Those IP Addresses are as follows:

    192.0.78.24

    192.0.78.25

    3. Before launching the site, and in order to properly connect and use your domain, you will need to purchase one of the plans here: https://wordpress.com/pricing/

    You can always upgrade later if you find you need to. If you have not yet run into any limitations while building your site here, upgrade to the lowest plan which is the Personal plan. That will allow you to then perform step 2 (above) and launch your new site on your company domain when you are ready.

    Notice I didn’t mention anything about transferring your domain. Due to the email, I don’t feel that’s necessary at this time. That might mean you continue to pay sageisland for a little longer, but we can help you cross that bridge after the new site is launched on the old domain.

    Hopefully these steps are informative and pretty straight forward. If you get stuck anywhere, or have questions, we’ll be here. :)

  • Unknown's avatar
    howardsupply · Member ·

    Hi,

    I know this is really late but we’ve been extremely busy so i’ve had to put the website on the back burner for a few weeks.

    I spoke with our IT person and he was told it would be best to keep our current registrar and just send the IP address to them so they can point the domain to the servers at wordpress.

    When I sent the IP addresses provided earlier in the thread they directed him to “howardbuildingsupply.wordpress.com” instead of “howardsupply.wordpress.com.” I assume this was just mix up or something, if you could clear that up for me that would be awesome.

    Also, I was told I would need to send DNS instructions and that you guys at wordpress could likely provide me with those as well.

    Thanks again for all your help.

  • kokkieh · Staff ·

    When I sent the IP addresses provided earlier in the thread they directed him to “howardbuildingsupply.wordpress.com” instead of “howardsupply.wordpress.com.”

    The IPs are for WordPress.com as a whole. Which WordPress.com site it connects to depends on which WordPress.com site you added the domain mapping upgrade to.

    We’re speaking of howardbuildingsupply.com, correct? That domain is connected to the site at howardsupply.wordpress.com. That is the only site in your account. The domain isn’t showing that site, because at the moment both the name servers and the IP address for the domain are pointing to another provider, instead of to WordPress.com.

    No site with the address, howardbuildingsupply.wordpress.com, exists on WordPress.com, so I’m not sure what your IT person thinks he saw.

    Also, I was told I would need to send DNS instructions and that you guys at wordpress could likely provide me with those as well.

    I’m afraid I’m not sure what you’re referring to. DNS instructions for what?

    If you’re going to point the domain to us using IP addresses, that means your DNS will continue to be managed by your current host/domain provider, so any changes to the DNS will need to be made on that end. We will only have control over your DNS if you instead point the name servers themselves to us.

    You can refer your IT person to the page at https://wordpress.com/support/domains/map-existing-domain/ so they can see how this process works.

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