Knowledge base

This step-by-step guide explains:

• how to transfer a domain name to Infomaniak,
• how to move a website to Infomaniak without interruption,
• how to back up your old emails to manage them with Infomaniak.

If you need help to transfer your site to Infomaniak, don't hesitate to call on our partners.

1. Why use Infomaniak for your domain names, websites and email?

• Expertise: Infomaniak has been hosting websites for over 20 years. We are a recognized player around the whole world in terms of hosting and online solutions. Infomaniak is the No. 1 hosting service provider in Switzerland in terms of revenue, and No. 2 in terms of the number of sites hosted.
• Security: all our clients' data is hosted on servers located in Switzerland belonging to Infomaniak. Our solutions are systematically developed and maintained by our engineers in our offices in Geneva, Switzerland.
• Support: with more than 1,000 articles and videos, our knowledge base allows our customers to immediately answer the vast majority of their own questions, and our customer service is open from Monday to Saturday. We help our customers get the full potential from our products by telephone and email.
• Responsible: Infomaniak is 100% committed to sustainable, responsible development through concrete actions, such as adopting the ISO 14001 standard, or creating the greenest datacentre in Switzerland. We offset 100% of the CO2 emissions that we generate through our activities and 100% of the energy we use is from renewable sources.
• Passionate: we love what we do and are pleased to offer high-end solutions at affordable prices. We are continually improving and enriching our services, based on market trends and customer needs.

By consolidating your domain names, websites, and emails with Infomaniak, you can simplify the management of your bills and your services. For example, linking a domain name with your website and your email address will be automatic. That way, you won't need to manually configure your DNS with another registrar (registration office).

2. Transferring a domain name to Infomaniak

The domain name is the address you enter in a browser to view a site, such as infomaniak.com

It's possible to transfer a domain name from one registrar to another.

These are the steps to follow to transfer a domain name to Infomaniak:

1. log in with the registrar that currently manages your domain name
2. get the transfer code from your current registrar for the domain name to be transferred (help)
3. order the domain name to be transferred to Infomaniak
4. During the transfer, be sure to keep the current DNS for the domain name
5. enter the transfer code when prompted

3. Moving a website to Infomaniak

All the sites you visit are stored (hosted) with companies usually referred to as web hosts. If you already have a website, it's possible to trust Infomaniak with the management of its hosting without interrupting the operation of your current site and without inconveniencing your loyal visitors :)

Here are the steps to take in order to move your current site to Infomaniak:

1. using an FTP program, back up all the files on your site with your current web host
2. back up your MySQL databases if you use any
3. order the Infomaniak hosting of your choice with the current domain name of your website
4. from our Manager, create an FTP account (help)
5. using an FTP program, send your website files that you saved in step 1 in your hosting's Web folder (you can also use our FTP Manager(help) to upload a .zip of your data and unzip everything from the tool)
6. from our admin console, create a new MySQL database with a user who has full rights to the database (help)
7. from our Manager, import the backup of your database to the database that has just been created (help)
8. in the configuration file of your web app (WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc.), adapt the following information based on the parameters shown in our Manager (help):
   • the database name
   • the database server
   • the database username
   • the database user's password
9. test your website using the preview address (help)
10. don't forget to follow chapter 5 of this guide to redirect your domain name to your new hosting!

Warning: the procedure described is only valid if the domain name does not change. If this is not the case, you should make the necessary adjustments to your MySQL databases if you use any. Steps 2, 6, 7, and 8 are not necessary if your site does not use a database.

4. Moving the management of your emails to Infomaniak

By outsourcing the management of your mails to Infomaniak, you can have a WorkSpace account.

WorkSpace is a comprehensive online solution for viewing and managing your emails, contacts, calendars, tasks and bookmarks online. It also lets you sync your contacts and calendars with a smartphone, tablet or email software.

Here are the steps to take in order to manage your emails with Infomaniak:

1. if necessary, order a Mail hosting (help)
2. from our Manager, create the required mail addresses (help)
3. configure your WorkSpace account (help) or your email software with your new addresses (help)
4. use our synchronisation tools (syncimap/imapsync) to automatically copy and rehouse the content of the old email address to the new address, box by box or in batches (help)

If WorkSpace is used:

1. import contacts to the address book (help) and import a calendar to the WorkSpace calendar (help) configure the synchronisation of contacts and calendars with your smartphone/tablet (help)

5. Activate your new hosting

Now, you just need to point your domain name to the Infomaniak hosting:

1. open the Manager (manager.infomaniak.com)
2. go to Domain name
3. click on the domain name in question
4. in the left side menu, click on theManaging DNS
5. click on DNS Servers
6. click on Change DNS servers
7. tick the Infomaniak DNS servers box and click on Confirm

6. Wait up to 48 hours and then cancel your old services

Updating the DNS for your domain name can take up to 48 hours. It is therefore possible that your domain will still point to your old web host for 48 hours.

Once that time has elapsed, don't forget to terminate your services (email, website hosting, etc.) with your old hosting service provider.

Congratulations :) Your site and your emails are now hosted with Infomaniak.

Thank you for your trust.

An alias is a second domain name linked to an existing site.

For example, for the site "example.com" to also be reachable with "www.example.com", you must add it as an alias to the "example.com" domain. In this example, "example.com" is the parent site of the "www.example.com" alias.

Generally, the "www" alias is already added and present but the procedure will also be useful to you when you want to point a second domain name to your site.

 

Prerequisite

If the domain name (that will become the alias) or its DNS zone is managed by Infomaniak, everything is OK. Otherwise:

• the A Record of the domain name must point to Infomaniak (help)
• to simplify, you can entrust us with the management of your domain name

 

Adding an alias to an existing site:

1. open the Manager (manager.infomaniak.com)
2. go to Web Hosting
3. click on the hosting/domain name in question
4. under Sites at the lower right, click on the site concerned
5. under Domains at the lower right, click on Add
6. enter the alias domain name(s) to be added, separating them with the Enter key
7. if the alias or its DNS zone is managed by Infomaniak, it is possible to automatically update the DNS entries. If not, make the necessary changes through your registrar or transfer the management of the domain name to Infomaniak: https://www.infomaniak.com/en/support/faq/1814/domain-name-transferring-to-infomaniak
8. click on Confirm to finish the procedure

It can take up to 48 hours for the alias to point to the parent site.

A number of bodies are known to engage in a practice known as "domain slamming", intended either to take over the domain in question or simply to make money off your back. These include: Brandon Gray Internet Services, NameJuice.com  and Global Netsource. In addition, a number of Asian companies are listed here.

The company Domain Registrar of America (DROA) also aims to scam domain name owners by sending them a fax or e-mail for the renewal of one or more domain names two or three months before these are due to expire. This offer appears official and professional and offers extremely competitive prices. 

The catch: by signing, you agree to transfer your domain names to this registrar, with all of the associated risks of your web sites and e-mails being de-activated. Needless to say, you are encouraged to pay by credit card! This company has been subject to lawsuits in the USA, UK and Canada but remains extremely active in Europe.

Actions to be carried out

1. You need to determine who is sending you such a message... Is it a company that you know, which is writing to you from Switzerland or France, in French, etc. or conversely, is it an e-mail in English coming from abroad (USA, United Kingdom, Jamaica, Asia, etc.)? You must also determine what the status of your domain name is and where it currently resides (to do so, begin by performing a whois on www.infomaniak.com/who.is, for example).
2. Above all, do not follow up such e-mails: move them immediately to your trash folder to avoid paying astronomical fees unnecessarily.
3. check the 
   AFNIC Guide  to slamming and other fraudulent practices
4. enable Domain Privacy. To find out more:  https://faq.infomaniak.com/2237

When your domain name is registered elsewhere (supplier/third party registers) and you want to benefit from hosting with Infomaniak, you need to order a DNS zone.

This will also be particularly useful if the provider who manages your domain name does not offer DNS zone management.

Ordering a DNS zone

1. Log in to your admin console
2. Order a domain, indicating the domain name registered elsewhere
3. Make sure that DNS zone management is selected:

This guide explains how to manually pay your invoices and what the accepted payment methods are. If the invoices are not paid within the time specified, the services concerned are blocked, then terminated thereafter. In case of problems, it is therefore important to respond quickly.

Do you want to simplify your life and automatically renew certain products?

How do I pay a bill or renew a product?

To renew a product from the admin console:

1. open the Manager (manager.infomaniak.com)
2. in the upper right corner, click on Product(s) to renew or invoice(s) to pay
3. tick the invoices to pay and click on the Pay my selection button
4. choose a payment method and complete the process
   (choose IBAN to obtain a pro forma invoice before payment)

How do I pay for a pending order?

1. open the Manager (manager.infomaniak.com)
2. at the top right, click on Pending orders
3. click on the order to be paid
4. click on Pay for the order
5. choose a means of payment and finish the process

How to display or print the invoice for a pending order

1. open the Manager (manager.infomaniak.com)
2. at the top right, click on Pending orders
3. click on the order to be paid
4. click on the Actions button then on See the pro forma invoice

Accepted means of payment

To pay for a new order, a renewal or a change of deal, you can use:

• Visa, MasterCard, Carte Bleue
• PostFinance card (if the currency is CHF)
• IBAN transfer (any bank fees must be paid by you)
• PayPal
• the prepaid account (it is possible to use the available balance and pay the rest of an invoice by another payment method)

Accepted payment methods for crediting a prepaid account

• Visa, MasterCard, Carte Bleue
• PostFinance card (if the currency is CHF)
• IBAN transfer (any bank fees must be paid by you)

2 important notes:

• for the moment, payment by the prepaid account cannot (yet) be used for automated payments: you must manually pay every invoice, even if the prepaid account is sufficiently loaded,
• the limits of a deposit on prepaid account are from EUR 0.1 to EUR 9999 or CHF 0.1 to CHF 9999.

To learn more

• Enable or disable automatic renewal
• Add or change a payment method

To edit the DNS zone of a domain name managed by Infomaniak:

1. open the Manager (manager.infomaniak.com)
2. go to Domain name
3. click on the domain name in question
4. click on DNS Management
5. then click on DNS servers from the menu
6. click on Edit the DNS servers
7. if your website is hosted by Infomaniak, check Infomaniak Name Servers.
   If not, check Custom Name Servers
8. these changes may take up to 48 hours before they are effective for you and other users

Learn more about how a domain name works: https://faq.infomaniak.com/2026

Force the address bar to point to one of the domain name aliases installed in your hosting account, or display the main domain in the address bar instead of the alias. Limit so-called "duplicate content".

Say, for example, that you have hosting account www.domain.xyz with us and that you install www.domainalias.xyz in your account as an alias domain.

By default, when you type either these domain names (domain.xyz ou domainalias.xyz) into your browser address bar, the address that you type is the one that will appear in the address bar.

And so, you have the option of forcing an address other than that typed in to be displayed. Hence, if somebody types domainalias.xyz, domain.xyz is the address that will be automatically displayed in the address bar.

Actions to be carried out

Some code must be placed in a file named .htaccess which in turn must be located in the root of your hosting space (in the /web folder of your FTP space). If the file does not yet exist, you must create it on the server.

Replace "domain.xyz" with the domain name that you wish to see displayed in the address bar of the visitor's browser.

The first piece of code redirects everything that is not on port 80 to http://www.*domain.xyz*/$1 and you should therefore note that we are in effect "forcing" the HTTP protocol rather than HTTPS:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www.domain.xyz(:80)?$
RewriteRule ^(.*)       http://www.domain.xyz/$1 [L,R]

The second rule below allows SSL-based sites to use HTTPS if necessary during redirection. Moreover, this second rule uses explicit redirection (R=301) while the first uses implicit redirection (the visitor is unaware that they are being redirected).

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !(domain.xyz|localhost)
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.domain.xyz/$1 [R=301]

To avoid duplicate content, explicit redirection (the 2nd solution) is recommended as with this solution all of the site's aliases are redirected explicitly to a single URL. You are of course free to set up your own rule: the rules provided here are simply examples.

This guide explains how to add, change or delete specific entries (records) within a DNS zone of a domain name. It may also help you to:

• edit the DNS zone present with Infomaniak for a domain name managed by another Registrar
• link an Infomaniak-managed domain name to a Web/Email hosting managed by another hosting service provider

Logging into the DNS zone

1. open the Manager (manager.infomaniak.com)
2. go to Domain
3. click on the domain name to be modified
4. click on DNS management then on DNS zone from the left-side menu
5. the entries currently in place are listed in the table

For further and simplified information:

• a MX record allows you to indicate where the EMAIL part of your domain should be managed
• an A record allows you to direct a domain name (e.g.: your-site.com) or a sub-domain name (e.g.: example.your-site.com) to a Web server that has a static IP address.
• a DKIM record (Domain Keys Identified Mail) is a method of authentication which allows you to know whether an email actually comes from its sender's domain. This standard thus stops spammers from passing themselves off as legitimate entities
• a SRV record (Service Resource Records) allows you to show which services are available for a domain. SRV are often used for XMPP or LDAP protocols, or for the use of Microsoft Office 365.

These changes may take up to 48 hours to propagate.

This guide explains how to link a domain name managed by a registrar other than Infomaniak to an Infomaniak hosting (Web and/or Email). It assumes that you have the ability to change the DNS zone (A record, MX record, etc.) of your domain name with your current registrar.

Link the external domain to your Web Hosting

To link your Infomaniak web hosting with your existing domain name:

1. Open the Manager (manager.infomaniak.com)
2. Go to Web Hosting
3. Click on the hosting/domain name in question
4. In the gray box, below the product expiration date, click on More Information
5. At the bottom of the page that pops up, under Server, note the IPv4 address (e.g.: xx.xx.xx.xxx)
6. Enter the IPv4 address previously noted under the A Record for your registrar

This setting can take up to 48 hours to take effect, and your web hosting should then be linked to your domain name. If the domain is destined to be an alias of your principal site,you must add the alias to your site: https://faq.infomaniak.com/1946

Link the external domain to your Mail Hosting

To link your Infomaniak Email hosting to your existing domain name, enter the following settings with your domain name registrar:

• MX Record: IN MX mta-gw.infomaniak.ch
• TXT Record: IN TXT v=spf1 include:spf.infomaniak.ch ?all

These settings can take up to 48 hours to take effect.

This guide explains how to link a domain name managed by a registrar other than Infomaniak (Web and/or Email). It starts from the principle that you cannot change the DNS zone (A record, MX record, etc.) for your domain name with your current registrar.

If your registrar does not let you configure the DNS zone for your domain name, two solutions are possible:

• Option 1: transferring the management of your domain name to Infomaniak
• Option 2: ordering DNS zone management in order to be able to configure the DNS zone for your domain name while keeping your current registrar

In both cases, you will then be able to configure the DNS zone for your domain name in order to make the A record point to your Web hosting and the MX record point to your Email hosting.

Option 1: entrust the management of your domain name to us

1. open the Manager (https://manager.infomaniak.com)
2. go to Domain
3. click on the blue Order/Transfer button
   
4. enter the domain name you own in the search field, then click Search
5. Click on the blue Next button
6. at the bottom of the page that pops up, check the No hosting box and click on the blue Next button
7. assign the various roles requested, then click on the blue Next button
8. insert the authorization code (help: https://faq.infomaniak.com/1814)
9. follow the instructions displayed on the screen to complete the procedure

Option 2: Keeping your current registrar

1. open the Manager (https://manager.infomaniak.com)
2. go to Domain
3. click on the blue Orde/Transfer button
   
4. enter the domain name you own in the search field, then hit the Search button
5. in the list of results, next to your domain name, select 1 year - DNS zone management in place of 1 year then click on the blue Next button
6. at the bottom of the page that pops up, check the No hosting box and click the blue Next button
7. follow the instructions displayed on the screen to complete the procedure
8. enter your DNS with the current registrar (help finding your DNS)

This change can take up to 48 hours to take effect.