Permanent redirect - to active website (from inactive web)

[gsmith]

My post at AH also included this

Also consider this, a Redirect permanent doesn't change peoples bookmarks, only they can do that. I think instead I would have them land on a special page that specifically tells them your site has moved with a link to the new URL and ask them to update their bookmark for it. Like used to be done in the old days. It gives them a heads up. See once the old domain is no longer available they are going nowhere unlss they change their bookmark. Now this doesn't mean you have to bring the old server online. Hence question 3.

[Nobbie]

Exactly.

For whatever reason, userapache123 wont believe us. I guess, as they say in Germany "das Kind ist bereits in den Brunnen gefallen", they have already shut down old.com, probably also deleted the DNS entry and unregistered the domain. Probably.
And if that's really the case, yes, they have a problem, an unsolvable one....