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I have a new hosting account on my hosting for one of my clients with an existing (terrible) website hosted with GoDaddy.

So right now theirdomain.com points to the existing site - which I want to stay put until I get done with setup.... and THEN I'll repoint the dns to the new WPMU site.

Right now you can access the "new" site at clientlogin.hostingserver.co.uk.

1)So in the WPMU install screen - what do I put into the "Server Address" form? clientlogin.hostingserver.co.uk makes sense because that's what DNS says it is now - but
theirdomain.com is what it will eventually be called.

2) If I need to use clientlogin.hostingserver.co.uk, then how do I go about changing that setting later when it's time to go live with the new site?

Merci Beaucoup!

you'll have to do a search & replace on the database when you want to switch domain names.

So the domain is embedded in the database in several places?

My big concern is that if I install with theirdomain.com that nothing will work correctly until the DNS gets changed..... but if I install with clientlogin.hostingserver.co.uk then it will work, but have the "wrong" URL domain even after I switch the DNS settings.

Am I correct - or am I crazy?

(OK, the last half of that question may be rhetorical...)

Yeah it's in several places. :)

"My big concern is that if I install with theirdomain.com that nothing will work correctly until the DNS gets changed....."

Pretty much.

Get it working on the clientlogin.hostingserver.co.uk domain first. Verify everything you need to.

Then, change the DNS server.
While waiting for it to propagate, go change the info in the database.

Or you can change the db info first and then change the DNS with a short TTL. That'll minimize any blips if it's getting traffic already.

Actually, I disagree with the above statements.

You can do a few tricks, and not have to deal with all that stuff.

Edit your hosts file, and set the new ip address to the actual domain.

This will let your computer point to the new location, so that you can use the actual domain instead.

From there, you can mess with it just like you would if the DNS were actually pointing to the new IP/site.

MUCH easier than all the search/replace crap.

Just remember to take out the line in your hosts file once you're ready to switch the DNS.

Also, note that the hosts file doesn't like wildcards. If using subdomain mode, you'll have to add each subdomain (while testing) to the hosts file as well.