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Switching to a New Web Hosting Company
Switching hosting companies can be a daunting task (I've done it
many times myself :), and one that shouldn't be taken lightly.
Many things could potentially go wrong if you're not adequately
prepared for the switch. So follow these steps, and exercise
care and diligence to ensure nothing gets missed.
The following should be done BEFORE you do anything with the
hosting account your moving FROM (i.e. do not cancel that
account yet), and BEFORE yo udo anything with your domain name:
1. Order a new hosting account from the web hosting provider of
your choice.
2. Once your new account is setup and the login information has
been sent to you, login to your new account and setup all your
email addresses. When doing this, take note of your new POP3 and
SMTP email settings that you will eventually have to enter into
your email client (i.e. Outlook Express or Eudora).
3. Upload your web files (i.e. website, databases,
scripts, etc.) to your new hosting account. You will have to use
the account's IP number to do this, since your domain name is
still pointing to your old hosting account.
4. Test your website in the new hosting account to make sure
everything is there and working properly.
5. Once you're satisfied that you've got all your files moved
over to the new hosting account, you can change the DNS settings
of your domain name to point to the new hosting account's
nameservers. You do this through your domain name registrar
(i.e. netsol.com, enom.com, godaddy.com, etc). Once you make
these changes, it may take up to 48 hours or more for
propagation to finish. Once that's finished, your domain name
will be directing traffic to the copied version of your website
on the new server. Also, your email will all be going to the new
hosting account.
6. Modify your POP3 and SMTP email settings in your email client
(i.e. Outlook Express or Eudora) to the new settings for your
new hosting account. As soon as you make these changes, any
email that was sent to you after the DNS propagated would have
been stored on the new server.... and should now download into
your email client.
7. Check and double-check to make sure that everything is
running smoothly on the new server, and that all your files,
images, databases, etc have been successfully loaded. You should
check in the old hosting account to make sure there are no new
database entries, form submissions etc, that could have arrived
in the 48 hours prior to propagation being completed (in which
case they would have arrived in the old account). If you find
anything that is not in the new account, copy it over. Also
check to make sure you have all your server-side scripts running
OK, as often times it is necessary to make adjustments in the
scripts based on the relative locations of certain files.
8. Once you are satisfied that you have everything you need from
the old account, and everything is running smoothly with the new
account, you can cancel your old account.
You have successfully switched to a new web hosting company :)
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