Changing Custom Domain Name - Will Old Name Redirect?

I currently have a custom domain name for my forum, www.smokinelite.com

That domain name was purchased directly through the admin panel so is owned by Forumotion. It expires in 9 days.

I would like to switch to a new domain name that I own. I've found a guide on doing this, but I have some questions.

1) Do I need to wait for my current domain to expire before I switch to the new one? I would be going by this guide.
2) Can someone purchase my old domain name once it expires? Should I renew it? If I have to wait for it to expire before switching then this may be a problem. 
3) Once I follow the procedures in that guide and people visit my forum on the new domain, will that domain be the one displayed in the url bar or will it simply redirect to the main/old forum domain?
4) If I change to the new domain name, what will happen to users who visit the old domain name (smokinelite.com)? Will they redirect? If not, is there any way to have them redirect?

I appreciate help with this, thank you for your time.

Bump. Please help 

Bump

Hello ^_^

1/ You can remove your current domain name when you want. No need to wait for it to expire.

2/ If you dont renew your old domain name, after a short period, domain will become available on market and can be bought by anyone.

3/ people who visit from new domain url will have this domain name appearing in their url bar. People coming with basic url of your forum (like http://myforum.forumotion.com ) will display this basic url and there is no way to force the basic url to the external domain url. Redirections only work with domains bought or offered by Forumotion.

4/ Domain is currently managed by Forumotion and you cannot change yourself its properties. If you buy it again once it expired with another registrar, you'll be able to redirect it on the new domain name.
If you dont buy it, you wont be the owner and should not redirect a domain which is not yours.

Neptune- wrote:Hello ^_^

1/ You can remove your current domain name when you want. No need to wait for it to expire.

2/ If you dont renew your old domain name, after a short period, domain will become available on market and can be bought by anyone.

3/ people who visit from new domain url will have this domain name appearing in their url bar. People coming with basic url of your forum (like http://myforum.forumotion.com ) will display this basic url and there is no way to force the basic url to the external domain url. Redirections only work with domains bought or offered by Forumotion.

4/ Domain is currently managed by Forumotion and you cannot change yourself its properties. If you buy it again once it expired with another registrar, you'll be able to redirect it on the new domain name.
If you dont buy it, you wont be the owner and should not redirect a domain which is not yours.

Thanks so much for the response!

To follow up on 4 - say I renew smokinelite now, then follow the guide to put the forum on the other domain that I own. Would smokinelite still lead to my forum in that case? My main concern here is losing tons of users who visit smokinelite.com. Is it possible for me to purchase smokinelite.com directly from forumotion? Waiting for it to expire could result on someone else snapping it up which I can't risk.

Well, domain names bought (or offered) via Forumotion are not designed to be transferred outside of Forumotion

First of all, remember that the transfer of domains purchased through forumotion is an operation that can be done only in exceptional circumstances and case by case.

Yes, i think it is better to renew it now than waiting it to expire and take a risk that someone else can buy it.

If you renew it via credits you should be able to ask for its transfer on another registrar 90 days after the renewing date.
Once transferrred you can go to control panel of your new registrar to create a redirect from http://www.smokinelite.com/ to your new domain name.
Then apply the new domain name to your board. Users trying to visit http://www.smokinelite.com/ will be redirected on http://www.newdomain.com which will take them to your board.

If you choose to apply now the new domain to your board, no user would be redirected through http://www.smokinelite.com/ since you cannot redirect a domain not handled directly by yourself.

Edit :
Full tutorial here

Thanks very much Neptune, that answers all my queries

Is this solved?

SLGray wrote:Is this solved?

Yes it is but thanks for checking