DNS Hosting - Moving away from RM

[newpersn]

Hi,

 

Wonder if anyone could advise, Logged a call with RM earlier to make a change to a A record and it appears we don't have a valid contract but they do hold our address. 

 

Has anyone moved their DNS hosting away from RM and if they did who did they use please? Was it painless or cause issues?

 

Our website/email address does have the ".gloucs.sch.uk" domain. 

 

 

 

 

[simpsonj]

Is there any chance you have a login to their DNS management system to make the change yourself?

 

RM Connectivity Services

[newpersn]

1 minute ago, simpsonj said:

Is there any chance you have a login to their DNS management system to make the change yourself?

 

RM Connectivity Services

No access to this. Our internet connection is managed though EXA, School not been with RM for internet connection for about 10 years. (I think) 

[simpsonj]

I haven't had RM Internet for around 10 years either! However, I've still got access to the RM Connectivity website purely to manage the DNS of the school website. It was just a thought, it might be that RM can give you a username and password for that? Otherwise I've moved other school websites using Nominet & Fasthosts, but that can cost £15 for the transfer, require the headteacher to prove ownership, or both!

[newpersn]

Looks like our website hosting company can deal with our DNS and its already included within our contract.   

[dsmith8]

Yeah we did this recently email [email protected] with someone senior at the school emailed in and say you want them to change the IPS TAG we used Heart for .sch.uk domains so it was HEARTINTERNET. They can also provide a DNS Export.

[TheHyperTechie]

I manage our DNS records through the RM portal myself.

 

I believe it is a paid extra (Self-Service) @ £49 a year. Well worth it though, sometimes requests would take 24-48 hours which was just too long unfortunately.

[msi_school]

16 hours ago, newpersn said:

Looks like our website hosting company can deal with our DNS and its already included within our contract.   

It's not always the best idea to host your website and hold your DNS at the same company, if there is an issue and you get locked out you have no access to either whilst by holding them seperate you have more options.

 

You also have more admin overhead and potentially more cost so ...

[dhicks]

17 hours ago, newpersn said:

Has anyone moved their DNS hosting away from RM and if they did who did they use please?

 

We use Cloudflare as our DNS provider, with various services on a number of sub-domains. Using Cloudflare means you can use their (free!) DDOS-protection and Zero-Trust tunneling  services, which is handy.

[newpersn]

Looking at this. Website hosting wont touch .gloucs.sch.uk and RM are not wanting to change any of our settings until they see a PO.

 

Currently looking at Krystal and looks like its still free (from their AI Chat)

[MicrodigitUK]

Just to add to this thread, worth knowing that Nominet can act as registrar for "sch.uk" domains completely free of charge. There's no need to pay a third party just to hold the registration.

For actual DNS hosting, Cloudflare's free tier does the job perfectly well for most schools' needs.

One tip from experience: if you're moving a domain away from RM (or another LA/MAT-managed registrar) and no longer have direct access, it's often quicker to raise the request through any other school in your trust/group that still has an active support contract with that provider. Providers will usually action the change without much pushback once you copy in the headteacher of the specific school to authorise it that authorisation is really the only thing they're checking for. But if that fails Nominet CAN make the changes directly with a letter on headed paper from the head teacher to authorise the changes and cut out RM (or another LA/MAT-managed registrar), its just a bit more manual process and can take longer. But here are the steps I generally take to move away the DNS to Cloudeflare.

Steps I generally follow when migrating a domain away from an old registrar/DNS host:

STEP 1 – Update Registrar Primary Contact Email
Ask the current registrar (or whoever manages the domain via their portal/third-party software) to update the "Contact email" field in the Contact Info section for each domain. It's often still set to a generic or defunct admin/headteacher addressget it changed to your own trust/IT admin mailbox.

Once updated, the domain(s) should become visible in your own Nominet Online Services portal, linked via that contact email. Confirm you can see them before moving to Step 2.

STEP 2 – Get a Copy of Existing DNS Records
Request a full export/backup of the existing DNS records for each domain. This lets you replicate the current configuration on your new DNS provider (e.g. Cloudflare) in advance, minimising disruption when you cut over.

STEP 3 – Update the IPS Tag (only after Step 1 is confirmed)
Once the domain(s) are visible in your Nominet portal, ask existing registrar for the IPS tag to be updated to:

NOMINET

Only do this once you've confirmed visibility, doing it too early can leave the domain in limbo.

Then via Nominet Online Services portal use the privet message and chat services to get Nominet to except as the new Registrar. Once done this gives you the DNS config options in the Nominet Online Services portal for that domain.

STEP 4 – Cut Over DNS and Remove Old Records (only after Steps 1–3)
Once the tag change has propagated, point the domain(s) to your new DNS servers (e.g. Cloudflare's nameservers). Once live, ask the old provider to remove the old DNS records from their systems, so there's no conflict or accidental interference with other schools/sites still using their DNS.

 

This has generally been a smooth, no-cost route for us so hope that helps.

[mavhc]

Agree, move to cloudflare, also means you can do dns auth for lets encrypt, which means you can have wildcard certs