Transferring Your Website From One Host to Another

So finally, you have decided its time to move on to a new hosting provider. It could be for any reason, you might have got a better deal with lots of new features, or your present provider just doesn’t provide any support at all, whatever the reason might be, its important to take the right steps to prevent losing any data while moving from one host to another. Another important point, which should be highlighted is that, it is perfectly possible to move on from one host to another, with little to no downtime.

Here are the steps, which will make your transfer process as smooth and simple as possible.

1. Transfer your files and logs to the new host
2. Set your name servers
3. Cancel your old hosting account.

Transferring your files to the new host

Once you have registered with your new host, it is the most obvious thing to transfer all your files to your new host, but the important thing here is, not to cancel your account with your old host until you have done this. In fact, it is recommended not to even give him any signals that you are intending to move, until the change has taken place. Another important thing to note while transferring files is that, you may have added some scripts which were provided by your host, for e.g. a message board, and hence do not assume that you have all the files on your computer (unless you are 100% sure). Preferably, first download all the files to your computer, and then upload them to the new server.

A very important thing, which many people ignore here, is backing up the log files. If you have statistical data, which you believe is worthwhile, always back-up your log files, to prevent losing your statistical information.

Set your Name Servers

The next step is setting up your name servers to point to the new host. You may either need to contact your domain name provider, or you may be able to do it from a control panel, that your provider has provided you with. Once you have done that, please note that it can take up to anywhere from 24 to 72 hours for your domain to propagate to your new host. It also depends on the geographical location of the person accessing your website. Your site may experience some downtime during this stage.

Cancel your old hosting account

This is the final step in your transfer process. Please do not do this, until you are 100% sure that your website is fully functional on your new host. In fact it is recommended that you wait 2-3 days even after everything has been successfully transferred, just to see that everything is working fine with your new host.

If you carefully follow all these steps, your transfer process should be a simple and smooth one. Please note, that some hosting providers are actually willing to do this for you free, and hence it is always worth asking them. In any case, do make your back up.

About The Author: Ashish Monga is a Business Student at the University of Central
England in Birmingham, UK and a successful entrepreneur who runs an IT
Company. He also writes web-hosting articles for www.webhostauditor.com .

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