Moving to a new host

This may be slightly OT and maybe a bit of a newbie question. I’m
finally moving to a Rails-enabled host, and I’m starting to prepare for
what is needed. I signed up with HostingRails since they really seem
quite keen on RoR and their charges are quite decent for a starter.

The main thing I need to do now is to point my domain to the new host.
My domain was a free domain provided by my hosting provider but I have
full control over the name servers, etc. I do, however, need to renew
the domain now.

  1. Should I transfer the domain to someone like GoDaddy and then renew
    it? Their cost for the 1st year is quite nice.
  2. After that, I need to change the name servers. I guess I log into
    GoDaddy (or whoever) and make the change? Does anyone have any idea
    what the settings for HostingRails are? I couldn’t find it on the
    site? (Perhaps, it will be there in the email they send me, I’m not
    sure)
  3. Is there a period of time when services will be unavailable to me?
  4. I guess I shall need to create all the email accounts on my new host
    after that?

I’m sorry some of this is very trivial, but this is the first time I’m
needing to do a transfer!
Thanks,
Mohit.