Easily the most important step, making a backup of everything with your current web hosting company is crucial. Things can get lost, damaged or deleted accidentally during any web hosting move, whether you've got an account with the best enterprise web hosting solution or a budget, affordable web site hosting plan. Remember that if your site relies on a database, that needs to be backed up, too. Create two copies of your backup and store them in separate physical locations to minimise the risk of the backups being damaged.
The best way to backup is to manually copy all your files from your web hosting provider. Some hosts offer backup features, but these sometimes rely on specific technology that is not compatible with other web hosting companies. If you need to backup a database, you can create a simple PHP, ASP or Perl script (depending on your web hosting solution) to do the job.
2 ? Tedium Extra
Once you've done your backups, you'll be ready to make the switch. The checklist below will help you gather your thoughts:
(a) Find out your new web hosting provider's DNS (b) Check environmental factors such as PHP/MySQL versions, settings and other differences that may require changes to scripts (c) Find out the temporary address to your new web hosting space so that you don't have to wait for the URL to be transferred to see if it all works OK (d) Some scripts may not work correctly after being directly transferred across, and so may require re-installation on the new servers. Ensure that you have copies of the installation instructions so that you can do this, if necessary.
3 ? Let the world know
Good and courteous practice dictates that webmasters should inform their users of a web hosting change in good time. This allows users to prepare for (or at least not be surprised by) a sudden loss of operation. Particularly if you run an online shop, there's a tendency for users to worry that you have disappeared with their money if they find they cannot access your site after they've paid for something and don't know why.
Offering a temporary or alternative e-mail address is always a good idea, too, and keeping users up-to-date on the change process will help make the move smooth for them.
4 ? The actual move
Schedule the actual switch between web hosting providers for a time that your hosting logs show is less busy. Perform one final backup for the latest, most up-to-date information, and then start copying files. You can help your users by uploading the parts of the site they use most, such as the main page. Getting error pages up there early is also a good idea, as it will allow you to inform visitors about the web hosting switch and apologise for problems.
If your website is really big, you may want to span the web hosting move over a few days. Prioritising sensibly by uploading the most important parts of your website first can really help make the whole transition much more seamless. Constantly check that pages and scripts are working by using the temporary URL to your web host.
5 ? Press the big red button
Once you're satisfied with everything, it's time to change your DNS over to the new server. The process, once started, will take between 24 and 48 hours, so there'll be a space of time during which you can tweak your site if you need to.
By making a tiny change on the main page of the site on the new web hosting provider, you'll be able to tell the difference between the new and old hosts, and see if the DNS has resolved (has been assigned to the new host).
6 ? Keep those eyes peeled; you're not out of the woods yet!
Keeping your old web hosting account for at least a fortnight after you make the move is a really good idea. Check for server activity, e-mails and online contact systems (such as web form messages). Once you are satisfied that all of your users are being directed to the new web hosting provider, it's safe to close the old account.
Compare Web Hosts for Satisfaction and Not Sorrow I have been a web master for about 8 years now. In this business that makes me an ancient. One benefit of experience is having already stumbled over a lot of newbie mistakes so I can (hopefully) avoid those mistakes in the future. I am sure I can find plenty of new mistakes to make. One of the most important aspects of my business, and one thing that can make or break me no matter what else I do right, is finding a reliable web host. Most of us who build, promote, and maintain websites do not keep our own servers. We usually rent space for our websites from a web hosting company. Servers Need To Be Up and Fast If we build the perfect website, but the servers are not kept up most of the time, we cannot make any money because nobody can get to our website. Even worse, we may have paid for website traffic through search engines and other websites. Or we may have worked very hard to develop articles and links to drive traffic to our own site. None of this will do us any good if our website is down. Instead of getting the word out about our business so we can make money, we will be clenching our teeth and watching our money evaporate. And not only does the website need to be on a hosting server which is functioning, if we have a lot of traffic, it also needs to be fast. I do not believe that anybody has a shorter attention span than a web surfer. If a potential visitor clicks the link to your site and has to wait for several seconds for it to load, they will most likely give up and try another website. We have too much competition to have our own server working against us! Hosting Needs to Be Flexible and Reliable We may have a small account with only one website, then expand to a product called reseller hosting which allows us to have multiple websites, and finally rent our own server that we can control. So it is also important to find a host with flexible plans so that you can expand when you need to. If your website starts out small, you may purchase a basic plan. But if your website grows, you want to be able to upgrade your hosting plan without any trouble. So I would suggest looking for a company that has a variety of flexible plans from starter hosting to dedicated servers, and that has a policy of making it easy to upgrade. The last thing I look for is a host that has been around for awhile, and that will be around in the future. I have had to change hosts three times because the company went out of business, and believe me, it is really a pain. It is always difficult to transport complex sites from one host to another, and it almost always involves downtime. I consider the task of moving from one hosting company to another almost as difficult as moving homes, and it is expensive, time intensive, and frustrating. It is also nice to be able to choose between Windows and Linux as an operating system. Both types of hosts have many of the same features, but they also have some critical differences. You should be able to decide which operating system you are comfortable with.
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