Hello,

1. Suppose I have a domain abc.com and have account at 2 different webhosts

ns1.host1.com & ns2.host1.com
ns1.host2.com & ns2.host2.com

The Domain registrar permits 2 Nameservers to be used so if I want the site to use host1.com and in case it fails use Host2.com, what do I put in the nameservers ?

What happens in case of private nameservers ?

2. How to transfer domains betweeen two webhosts with no downtime. If there's a downtime how much ?

Thanks

1. Set the nameservers to ns1.host1.com and ns1.host2.com. It's not possible to use private nameservers in the registar info, because the registrar doesn't know about them :)

2. There are a couple ways to do this. This is the method that's worked best for me in the past:

First of all, you need two domain names, prereably the .com and .net.

1) Change the DNS info for the .net domain to point to a different IP, or set up different nameservers that have the new IP information.
2) On the new server, set up an index page that says the site will be changing servers soon, and redirect to the com.
3) Wait a couple days for the changes to propogate
4) Set up an index page on the old server (where com still points), that says the site's down for maintenance. Backup and move all your files to the new server. If you planned ahead, this shouldn't take too long, depending on how many files you need to transfer.
5) Now have the index page on the old server redirect to the new server
6) Change the DNS settings for com so it points to the new server

If you do that, the only down time you'll experience is the time it takes you to move your files from the old server to the new server. There are a couple other methods, look around the forums and you'll find some.

easiest way: copy the site to the new host. change nameservers to the new host (don't update anything for 3 days or it will create different copies on each server). after 3 days, everyone should be propogated to the new server.

this would work for static websites but not dynamic ones for example forums.

incase of sites that hosts databases, just move all static concents and make the new host read the database from the old site, wait for 3 days or so for dns to porpagate then stop dbserver move the db and import it on the new host then redirect whatever on the old page to the new page :)