email is not really an issue.. since the mail is my-name@example.com or my-name@mydomain.com
get all the mail from one account, then change the name servers for the domain, then set up the new email account on the new host.

You won't miss any mail that way, and during the five minutes lag time the sender will get their mail returned(no such address-permanent error), which will go away after the new server is set.

Dave,

Are you're saying that the entire email file containing all previously received emails can simply be copied to the new server and then pointed to somehow using the same address? If so, email isn't an issue like I thought it was. Are there any other issues with changing hosts?

Tom

I was referring to email used with an email client like Thunderbird,, or if your site mail is delivered to an outside address like gmail.

You must be talking about web mail.. I never haven't ever used web mail for over 10 years, but most all email servers do have a webmail interface that you can use.. I have looked at the webmail interface, but never used it.

with web mail, you would have to export all the mail and then import it to the new server. Unless you have root access and can get to the server files..
The thing to look at there is if the webmail will do import/export

Its not a problem keeping your mail address. But you will loose all of your history.

I suppose you could forward all the old mail to your email client via the pop account,,
or.. move all old mail to the inbox on the existing webmail and then get them using a client and the pop account.

then forward all the old mail to the new webmail account and sort them into folders..

If I had a customer that told me 'it has to be done', I would get it done one way or another.

So, maybe it's better to not use the mail service of the webhost in case you ever have to change webhosts. Is there any way to use your domain name as the mail destination (as in mail@mydomain.com) with a gmail, hotmail, or other type of mail service? It would be a real bummer to lose all previous emails (sent and received) just because of having to switch webhosts.

tried to edit, was timed out.
summing up? if that's possible..(this can be a rather involved subject)

lets just say a few things to consider when moving hosts..
Disc size is not important unless you truly need a zillion gigabytes of space..
how big is your website? 600 html pages, that's nothing.
However, if you have a big movie and photo gallery, you just might need 10 gigs of space or get a CDN(content delivery network) to help hold and deliver the media for the pages.

files
Be sure to grab a copy of everything from the server in advance of any change.. including a database dump, if used.

Email could be a small issue when changing hosts if you were using the hosts' web mail and have saved mail you need to keep.

The Domain (To me, this is the big one)
The domain being in a place where you can control it after leaving the old host, if you registered it through your hosting account.
** Many times you can still control the domain separately when leaving a host if the host is a domain reseller. Your domain would then be controlled by accessing the reseller site directly with your original user name and password from the hosting account.
The rule is,, You own it, you control it, you can transfer it anytime you want, you set the name servers to what you need at that time.

The rest of it is not a problem,,
The thing is that most hosts are running a shared environment that can be slow at high demand times, but will still serve a normal business web site just fine.. Most of my sites for small business run straight html/php.. and most of the ones using a database, are running a file based cache to make up for the delay from the shared sql server.

If you need a fast database, move up to a VPS or share a server with others.

The must haves are really basic stuff.. but look and make sure anyway,
--some hosts do not have htaccess-- yes, it can be a real pain-in-the-uknow

htaccess
addon domains to account, I like at least 5 but no limit is better..
domain pointer
email
ftp accounts
error log access
stats
mysql database, or another acceptable db (one is all you need, sql has no table limit)
cgi
php
php.ini (access to set things the way you want)
sub-domains -optional, but can be a blessing when developing a fresh site or separating departments.

I know I missed some stuff,, help me out eric...

I think Eric would be a good host especially if you need a knowledgeable person on your side so your site would be done right.

That is not entirely true.. Only if you use their 'web mail'

You can still use mail@mydomain.com,, but either use
- an email client like outlook or Thunderbird
- have all the mail 'delivered to' an outside email address such as gmail, yahoo, hotmail or what ever.

The email server has a setting for the delivery of the mail.. Email has many options and would take a lot of text to really get into it fully..

I use Wikmail email client for all my domain emails, works pretty slick, most any client should work pretty slick for this. Then do what Dave suggested. Check your mail(s) at all the addresses that you have on your server, then do the change of the nameservers and then create the emails on your other host. Should work pretty slick because you won't lose things that way since you already are downloading them to an email client rather than webmail.

If you already have a lot of email in a webmail system, it's very easy to get them to yourself via the email client.

1. Move them all back into the inbox on your webmail server (do this in sections if you want to keep them organized and easier to reorganize back into folders on the email client.

2. Now set them as Unread.

3. Be sure to setup the emails in your email client software and be sure they are working good.

4. Check your mail in the client and it should download anything in the inbox that is not read. Which should be everything you've already moved there and marked as unread.

5. Create your folder system in your email client software and move them emails to the appropriate boxes.

6. Rinse and repeat for each folder on your webmail server until you've downloaded them all.

You now will not lose any emails that you currently have stored on your server, and you'll be all set to go for moving to the new host.

Hope that helps and good luck with it!

Yea, even using a client like outlook will allow you to keep your old email addresses. Then when you re-sync outlook you should still have your history. You want to use webmail because it is domain specific.