You have spend quite a good time with your web hosting service provider but now its time for you to move on to a new server. Well, you would now like to change your web hosting provider. This may happen because you may find the service of your web hosting company lacking or you may now feel that your website is growing in traffic to the extent as of the outgrowing your current account. I am now going to mention certain things that you need to know before you actually change your web hosting provider.

1) Take a backup of all your files and databases:

Before you actually decide to transfer your website, it is very important to create a backup of every file and database that you have on the current web hosting provider’s server. You must do a FTP into your current web hosting account. Also, copy all the files from your public html directory into a directory on your local hard drive. As far as the database backup is concerned, it will vary according to the database vendor, the control panel of the web host and the server’s operating system. Mostly web hosting service provides a backup utility that will allow you to save a copy of the database content. In order to facilitate any compatible database engine to reconstruct, most back up utilities will convert the database into one long SQL file. On the other hand, if a simple backup utility is not available, in that case, you would have to export the contents of your database in a standard file format.

2) Check before you get it transferred to the new server:

You must make it a point to check whether your website is functioning property at the new place before you change the DNS information of your domain name. However, it may not be possible to entirely navigate the website but be sure enough to see that some individual pages do come up online. You may need an IP address of your web hosting account along with the name of the user. If it’s a control panel server, you will have to enter the IP address and user and your main website will come up. Example: you would enter http://62.38.144.222/-username.

3) Get ready to restore your database back:

You must be prepared to upload the backup files of your databases. This third step talks about the execution of the SQL file which was previously generated in the backup. By doing this above mentioned step, you will successfully restore your database back as it was on the old server. The server’s name information must be changed. You will find it with the registrar where you normally get your domain name registered or you could find it with your old web hosting provider. You would be normally assigned with a username and password which allows you to log into an account that will facilitate you to charge the server name. If you are not equipped with a control panel, then you can just email the company that registered your domain and inform them to change the old server’s name to the new server’s name. Within a period of 24 to 48 hours, your website will be switched on to the new server. Once you have done with this, you can then ask your old web hosting company to delete the old account.