I plan to transfer my domain hosting so that I have just one domain hosting company to host all of my domains.

However, I fear that inbetween the domain transfer, the website might be affected. Basically, my website might be unavailable due to domain name couldn't be resolved to ip address.

Before I go ahead to do this, could anyone educate me on how to transfer the domain without disrupting the website?

Thanks,

Jian

When you upload your site to the new host and change your nameservers it takes time for those new namservers to propogate throughout the net. In practice it will be propogated 95% within 24 hours or less. So, any visitors to your site during this time will either get your old host or your new host. There is no real "downtime". Just those who get your old host won't be getting the "live site". Any content posted to your old host will be lost. Usually the bulk of the propogation changes are done within a few hours. The reason for this is because isp's cache their internet connections so that it speeds up their customers internet access. Until that cache is flushed, those customers won't necessarily be getting "live" data. You can overcome this "lag" by 301 Redirecting your old site to your new site's ip address. It's usually ok to delete the old host within 7 days.

what stu2 said.

This would work fine if the site is static.
If the site isnt static, where visitors can make changes then you wouldn't have to both available simultaneously.

If you have access to your dns settings, then before and you could decrease your TTL (time to live) setting to help propagate the changes faster.

Mike

If you have access to the TTLs for your DNS records you could set them low (say, 3600 seconds which is an hour) and wait 24 hours for the new TTL to propagate. Then, set 'em to 300 (five minutes) and wait an hour for that to propagate. Then change your A records. Your visitors will all be using the new site within five minutes. That's how our savvy customers do it.... Managing your TTL gives you the best control over where your visitors go and when.

Create accounts at the new server, don't delete the account from the old server,

For static sites just change the name servers, then wait few days before you delete the account from old server.

For Dynamic Database driven sites, on new server Add Access Host to your database, go back to old server account, change the DB string in your database driven application and then change the name servers with your domain registrar. Now those visiting old site and those visiting new site both are submitting data to the new account. Wait few days and then delete the old account and also the entry of Access Host on your new server database.

Thanks for the answers. I think I understand some but not all of them.

I have just the DNS service that needs to be transferred, and the application itself is not hosted by the DNS/domain service provider.

So, I am thinking about this:

1) Initiate the transfer with the new registrar
2) Once the transfer is successful, update the old registrar's DNS so that it uses the new registrar's name servers.
3) Update the new registrar's DNS so that it also uses the correct registrar's name servers.

Does this sound like a good plan?

Thanks in advance,

Jian

If you have access to the TTLs for your DNS records you could set them low (say, 3600 seconds which is an hour) and wait 24 hours for the new TTL to propagate. Then, set 'em to 300 (five minutes) and wait an hour for that to propagate. Then change your A records. Your visitors will all be using the new site within five minutes. That's how our savvy customers do it.... Managing your TTL gives you the best control over where your visitors go and when.

This works well i have used it many times.

I have just the DNS service that needs to be transferred, and the application itself is not hosted by the DNS/domain service provider.

So, I am thinking about this:

1) Initiate the transfer with the new registrar
2) Once the transfer is successful, update the old registrar's DNS so that it uses the new registrar's name servers.
3) Update the new registrar's DNS so that it also uses the correct registrar's name servers.

Does this sound like a good plan?

You've lost me. In your first post you are talking about changing webhosting and now your talking about changing registrars. So you'll need to be much more clear on what it is you actually want to do.

Just as a side note you should not use the same company for registration and webhosting. Always keep them separate.

And also, most registrars (if not all) keep the former DNS servers when the domain is transfered to them.
That way you can set up new nameservers and have them propagate but still use the old ones for a period after the domain is transfered

I plan to transfer my domain hosting

Do you mean domain mangement ? DNS Hosting ? You're mixing up different terms which all mean different things ...

However, I fear that inbetween the domain transfer, the website might be affected.

Your sites will not be affected by a domain transfer, they *could* be affected by you changing nameservers, which you do no need to do.