It is recommended you start the process at least a few days before the time runs out on the account with your present host. This will keep your website from experiencing any downtime between the moves.
The first thing to do, after you have searched and found a new web hosts, is create a backup of your website. Make a new folder somewhere on your computer. Using your favourite FTP program, such as WS_FTP or Cute FTP (these and other FTP programs can be obtained at download.com), download all the files and folders on your website to the new folder you just made on your computer while maintaining the same folder and file structure (this will be important when uploading your files and folders onto your new host's server later). Make a note of any special CHMOD permissions you have set on any file or folder (look in your FTP program's help documents for information on checking a folder or file's CHMOD permissions). You will need to reset the permissions after you upload your files and folders to your new web host's server.
If you have any scripts or programs that you made a database for, make a backup of each database. If you have a database other than MySQL, check with your present web host for instructions on backing up your database. If you don't have any databases. If your web host offers phpMyAdmin, log in to your control panel and go to the database section. Look for a link to phpMyAdmin and click on it. If required, log in using the username and password you gave for your database. If you assigned a different username and password for each database, you will have to repeat this process for each database. After you log in, click on "databases" and then click on the database you want to backup/export. Click "Export" on the top menu.
If you are using phpMyAdmin 2.4.0, highlight all the tables under "View dump (schema) of database." Make sure the "Structure and data" radio button is selected. Check "Save as file" and select either "zipped" or "gzipped." Click "Go" and save the file (it would be a good idea to create a new folder in which to save all your databases).
If you are using phpMyAdmin 2.6.0-pl1, highlight all the tables under "Export." Check the "Structure" and "Data" boxes and select "SQL" under the tables you highlighted. Check "Save as file" and under "Compression" select either "zipped" or "gzipped." Click "Go" and save the file. (It would be a good idea to create a new folder in which to save all your databases). If you don't have phpMyAdmin, you can backup your database using MySQLdump.
Next, setup your databases.
If you have MySQL databases, log in to your control panel. Go to the database section and create databases. Also, assign usernames and passwords for the databases (if you have a database other than MySQL, check with your new web host for instructions on creating and importing databases). Now, find the link to phpMyAdmin. If required, log in using the usernames and passwords you just created. If you assigned a different username and password for each database, you will have to repeat this process for each database. After logging in, click on "databases" and select a database by clicking on it. From the top menu, click "SQL."
Go to the folder you saved your databases in and select the database that corresponds to the one you have open in phpMyAdmin. Open the file and copy and paste the database in the large text area in phpMyAdmin. Click "Go" under the text area field. You can also use the browse button to find the file on your computer and click "Go" below the browse field. If you don't see any errors, with whichever method you chose, you have just successfully imported the database. If you have more than one database, go back and repeat this process for each one, starting with logging in with your database username and password. If you don't have phpMyAdmin, you can use this method to create your databases.
You may need to edit some files before uploading them in the next step, by changing MySQL database name, username and password settings within the files, if any information has changed. If you don't remember which files contain MySQL settings, check the installation instructions for each script/program.
Next, upload the files from the folder in which you saved your website content onto the new web host's server, maintaining the same folder and file structure, using your FTP program. The only difference in structure may be the location of the cgi-bin. Some web hosts have your cgi-bin inside the www or public_html directory and some have it placed outside. If you had any programs or scripts on your website, you may need to edit some files by changing paths within them. If you don't remember which files contain paths that may need to be changed, check the installation instructions for each script/program. Also, change any file or folder permissions as needed (look in your FTP program's help documents for information on changing a folder or file's CHMOD permissions).
The final step is to point your domain name to your new web host's name servers. This information probably came in an email from your new web host soon after you registered with them. If not, send them an email asking them what the name servers are for your domain. Once you have this information, go to the website where you have your domain name registered. Log in to your account and set the name servers for your domain. Please note that changes to name servers may take as much as a couple of days to take effect. If you still have a few days left on your old account, your website shouldn't experience any downtime. Once the name server’s change has taken effect, cancel the account with your old host (this is so you don't get charged for another term). That's it. You have successfully switched web hosts.
Showing posts with label Website. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Website. Show all posts
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Is my choice of a web host really that important
With such a huge market of web hosts on the Internet you may be lead to believe that they all are basically the same. I would caution you to rethink this philosophy.
There are web hosts that offer huge amounts of disk space for a small monthly fee and there are web host that offer a very limited amount of disk space, bandwidth, and email accounts for a more expensive price.
When searching for a web host there is more important factors to take into consideration.
When searching for a web host please look at the following factors:
What is there uptime guarantee?
May host offer a guarantee of uptime? Please inquire to determine if there are any discounts if they do not meet this guarantee because this is your business and if your website is not visible on the Internet you cannot sell your products or services. For instance, does your prospective web host offer a guarantee of discounts for each hour that your site is inaccessible from their servers or their network?
Ask for information regarding their network
On the Internet there are several interconnected networks. There are some networks that connect smaller networks to larger networks and some networks are top tier networks. It would be a good idea to ask your prospective host for their network diagram or documentation regarding there network backbone. A top-tier provider offers more reliable and faster connectivity while a host that connects via a 3rd party network may experience frequent network issues and reduced speed on there network. For an example please review 561Hosting's network provider info at: http://nsssc.superb.net/information/dca2net-info.php. This is quite a bit of technical information. If you should need an explanation please visit: http://www.561hosting.com. Our support staff will be happy to answer your questions via live chat or email.
Support
Support is a very important factor as well in your decision-making process. Please ask your prospective web host about their support package. Is there support 24/7, do they offer live chat? Is there a cost? At some point you may need support and it is really reassuring to know that your web host is there when you need them.
Above are a few issues to consider when selecting a web host. There are more factors to be considered but the factors above determine if your experience with a web host will be a pleasant one or one that can rivals a natural disaster.
There are web hosts that offer huge amounts of disk space for a small monthly fee and there are web host that offer a very limited amount of disk space, bandwidth, and email accounts for a more expensive price.
When searching for a web host there is more important factors to take into consideration.
When searching for a web host please look at the following factors:
What is there uptime guarantee?
May host offer a guarantee of uptime? Please inquire to determine if there are any discounts if they do not meet this guarantee because this is your business and if your website is not visible on the Internet you cannot sell your products or services. For instance, does your prospective web host offer a guarantee of discounts for each hour that your site is inaccessible from their servers or their network?
Ask for information regarding their network
On the Internet there are several interconnected networks. There are some networks that connect smaller networks to larger networks and some networks are top tier networks. It would be a good idea to ask your prospective host for their network diagram or documentation regarding there network backbone. A top-tier provider offers more reliable and faster connectivity while a host that connects via a 3rd party network may experience frequent network issues and reduced speed on there network. For an example please review 561Hosting's network provider info at: http://nsssc.superb.net/information/dca2net-info.php. This is quite a bit of technical information. If you should need an explanation please visit: http://www.561hosting.com. Our support staff will be happy to answer your questions via live chat or email.
Support
Support is a very important factor as well in your decision-making process. Please ask your prospective web host about their support package. Is there support 24/7, do they offer live chat? Is there a cost? At some point you may need support and it is really reassuring to know that your web host is there when you need them.
Above are a few issues to consider when selecting a web host. There are more factors to be considered but the factors above determine if your experience with a web host will be a pleasant one or one that can rivals a natural disaster.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
40 Million Web Hosting Providers To Choose From
There is more then 40 Million web hoisting provider to choose from and all of them are thirsty for adding your business to their portfolio, in this situation how do you identify and distinguish the best from the worse web hosting providers. Below I have highlighted some key point to Consider When Choosing a Web Hosting Provider.
Security
The security of your website is the most important thing to consider once your site goes live, you should be 100% confident that the technology that brings your web project to life is of the highest caliber and extremely secure. If you set your website to process customer details and collect payments via the internet then you should consider a hosting provider who can provide you with a server which has encryption capabilities and the ability to set up a dedicated secure server if and when requested by you.
Server Space
Before you commit your self to a hosting provider, first consider the amount of disk space you will need to host your website, a reasonable amount is around 500 MB, to 1 GB disk space, which is sufficient enough for any small business, unless you are planning on running a software repository or an image gallery or a file sharing website. Web hosting providers offer their customers several hosting packages and many of the packages comes with un-necessary disk space for a very reasonable price in attempt to out perform their competitors in many cases I found hosting providers are cutting corners to bring it customers an excellent hosting package which only looks good on paper.
Reliability
The reliability of the hosting provider is crucial. The length of time they have been in business, their percent of uptime, reasonable uptime you should expect is at least 99.5% and their backup and data retrieval practices and policies. Some hosting providers have multiple data centres, and some might even give you a choice of where your server will be at. Ideally, the closer the server is to you the better, as file transfers and interaction with the server will be at faster speeds. This might be a good question to ask the company on the phone call above.
Support
Technical support is something that should definitely be a part of a web hosting plan. Professional web hosting providers offer customers a support ticket system, this support system track all queries made by you and will automatically notify you via e-mail or SMS when your query get updated. The support system also give you access to review the status of any tickets you have raised, set priorities and check response times.
PHP/CGI-Bin
No matter what type of site you are planning on running, chances are you will eventually need to install some type of CGI script. Whether it be a mailing list management script, contact form processor, or maybe even a fancy credit card processing script, your hosting account will need to allow you to install and run them. This requires access to a special folder on your server called "CGI-Bin". Some hosting accounts will only allow you to use "pre-installed" scripts as a security measure. These are scripts that the owners of the company have installed and configured so that they know that they will work properly and not adversely affect their server's performance. That may be all you need, but if you have the knowledge, it's always nice to have the ability to install your own scripts and configure them to suit your individual needs. You should also be sure that the account you choose supports the language in which your scripts are written, such as PHP, Perl, etc.
Security
The security of your website is the most important thing to consider once your site goes live, you should be 100% confident that the technology that brings your web project to life is of the highest caliber and extremely secure. If you set your website to process customer details and collect payments via the internet then you should consider a hosting provider who can provide you with a server which has encryption capabilities and the ability to set up a dedicated secure server if and when requested by you.
Server Space
Before you commit your self to a hosting provider, first consider the amount of disk space you will need to host your website, a reasonable amount is around 500 MB, to 1 GB disk space, which is sufficient enough for any small business, unless you are planning on running a software repository or an image gallery or a file sharing website. Web hosting providers offer their customers several hosting packages and many of the packages comes with un-necessary disk space for a very reasonable price in attempt to out perform their competitors in many cases I found hosting providers are cutting corners to bring it customers an excellent hosting package which only looks good on paper.
Reliability
The reliability of the hosting provider is crucial. The length of time they have been in business, their percent of uptime, reasonable uptime you should expect is at least 99.5% and their backup and data retrieval practices and policies. Some hosting providers have multiple data centres, and some might even give you a choice of where your server will be at. Ideally, the closer the server is to you the better, as file transfers and interaction with the server will be at faster speeds. This might be a good question to ask the company on the phone call above.
Support
Technical support is something that should definitely be a part of a web hosting plan. Professional web hosting providers offer customers a support ticket system, this support system track all queries made by you and will automatically notify you via e-mail or SMS when your query get updated. The support system also give you access to review the status of any tickets you have raised, set priorities and check response times.
PHP/CGI-Bin
No matter what type of site you are planning on running, chances are you will eventually need to install some type of CGI script. Whether it be a mailing list management script, contact form processor, or maybe even a fancy credit card processing script, your hosting account will need to allow you to install and run them. This requires access to a special folder on your server called "CGI-Bin". Some hosting accounts will only allow you to use "pre-installed" scripts as a security measure. These are scripts that the owners of the company have installed and configured so that they know that they will work properly and not adversely affect their server's performance. That may be all you need, but if you have the knowledge, it's always nice to have the ability to install your own scripts and configure them to suit your individual needs. You should also be sure that the account you choose supports the language in which your scripts are written, such as PHP, Perl, etc.
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