To many the idea of moving your web site from one host to another
can sometimes seem like a daunting task but the process of moving your
site is simple when you know what steps to take and the order to take
them in. This article will walk you through the steps required to
perform a site move without the downtime.
Firstly there is this one important thing you need to remember, DO NOT TERMINATE YOUR EXISTING HOSTING ACCOUNT
until the very last step. You may be very unhappy with your current
hosting but it is essential that your current hosting account remains
active until you are 100% sure your site is all operational with the
new hosting provider.
If you follow the steps below you should be able to transition from one host to another without any downtime to your web site.
Create A New Account
Firstly
you need to choose your new hosting provider, once you have chosen that
provider sign up for the chosen hosting package and once the new
account is setup you can move on to the next step.
Backup All Your Files From Your Old Account
This
is a relatively simple process, but can be time consuming depending on
the size of your web site. Go to your old hosting account and download
all the files via FTP, and backup any databases in use. Remember that
you cannot cancel this account yet even though you have backed up all
your files.
Upload All Your Files To Your New Account
Once
you have backed up your files on your old hosting account, it is time
to go to your new hosting account and upload the backups via the new
hosts FTP.
Create Your Mail Accounts
To avoid losing
any of your email when you later change your domain name server
addresses, it is imperative that you now create all the same email
accounts that you had with your old hosting provider in your new
hosting account. Once this has been done, all email addresses on the
new account should match the email address on your old account.
Checking of Your Files and Links
Now
it is time to check all the pages of your web sites and verify that all
links are working correctly on your new host. To do this you will need
to create a temporary URL to the web site. A quick and easy way to do
this is to create a sub domain of another URL and point it to your new
web site by the way of mirroring. Any good web hosting provider should
provide you with the ability to create temporary a URL so you can test
your new site.
Changing Your DNS (Domain Name Server)
If
you are now certain that your files have all been uploaded correctly
and the links within your site are working correctly, you can change
your DNS (domain name servers). Your new host should have provided you
with their DNS settings. If they have not, contact them and ask what
addresses should be used for your domain name. Usually the addresses
will look like this, ns1.domainname.com, ns2.domainname.com.
The
place to change the DNS addresses is whoever your domain name is
registered with. If you registered the domain name through a registrar,
you will need to login to their control panel and change the DNS
servers there. If it was registered with your old host, you will need
to login to their control panel and change the DNS entries there.
Wait For DNS Changes To Propogate
After
you have changed your DNS (domain name servers) you will need to wait
between 24-48 hours for your domain to propogate across the internet.
During this waiting period your site will still be served from your old
hosting account, as the DNS propogates your site will be served from
your new host. Once the propogation has completed all requests to your
domain will be served from you new host.
Cancel Your Old Account
Make
sure you wait at least 48 hours for the domain name to propogate, and
make sure that your domain name is resolving to your new hosting
account before cancelling your old account.
Final Words
By following these steps you should now
have successfully transferred your web site from your old host to your
new host without any downtime.
David J. Smith writes about a new hosting company called Hostmonster and other prominent web hosting providers at Webhost-Advisor.com
