New domain extension

I am moving my site from .com.au to .net today

I presume I just leave a htaccess file in the .com.au site root saying:

Code:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.newdomain.net/$1 [R=301,L]

Then after a week or so after everything is ok and the .net site is working properly with users logging in ok etc I then park the .com.au on top of the .net.

This would also ensure that if anything went wrong I could just delete the htaccess file and .com.au would be back up

Is this all correct - thanks!

If you park the .com.au on the .net, you won't even have a file system on the .com.au at all, and the non-www to www directive will direct it to .net, forever.

Why is it that you can't get a straight answer on this site as even mentioned several times on vb.org

I said in my post that I would leave the redirect until the new site was working properly and then park the domain on top of it...obviously if the new domain is all working properly I wouldn't need to have any files in the old one.

Is the redirect code that I have shown in the first post correct to redirect and entire domain to the new one????

Am I doing any harm by having a redirect for a week before parking????

Is it better to park or just leave the redirect forever????

I'm sorry if you feel my answer doesn't appear answer your question. Frankly, what you want to do isn't ideal. Having 2 sites with the same content up is a huge no-no. It literally takes 5 minuets to set this up.... there is no need for a week of redirecting stuff. Park it once, and you're done. There's nothing else to do. Doing it the long hard way is never the way when there's an easier and more efficient way.

Ok, I have parked the .com.au domain on top of the .net domain by simply using cPanel.

Is there anything else I need to do like any htaccess edits etc?

All I have in the root htaccess is the change from non www to www

In cPanel do I actually redirect it as well?

The www redirect will take care of it if its parked.

try it out.... it should work instantly.

Thanks Brian, I have done it however users seem to be logged in until they get to the threads list page and then they are suddenly shown that they have to login - this is because the address is showing .com.au on the site home page and the forums list home page and then when they click on a forum it takes them to the .net address.

This is going to be confusing for many of my site members who are not pc literate - any suggestions on how I can make this easier - thanks

If this is the case, it's not set up correctly.

.com.au should never LOAD anything, but redirect instantly to .net (and of course, everyone will have to log in here at least once to cookie themselves on the new domain).

Things to check
- domain is parked correctly
- htaccess does a redirect to .net if NOT .net
- vboptions -> site url is set correctly.
- cookie path/domain in vboptions is set correctly

Thanks Brian - just parking a domain in cPanel doesn't do it properly, you have to also create a redirect for it in cPanel which then creates the entry in the root htaccess of the main domain - it seems to be working properly now - thanks