So you have decided to switch from your old web host to another hosting provider but cannot suffer any downtime. Well here is a simple way to do it.
Many people have put up with some hosts bad features and or service simply because they already had a website up and traffic to it and did not know how to change to a better web hosting provider and were scared to try for fear of loosing files and traffic from down time. Follow these simple steps below and your transfer will be painless, seamless, and none of your regular customers visiting your website will ever notice the difference or see any downtime.
- The first step is to make an informed decision on finding a new web hosting provider that provides the services and features that your site requires and setup an account with them. You may wish you review this article on choosing a hosting provider. When asked what you are doing for a domain name, put in transfer of a domain name and type in the domain name that you currently use. Do not forget this important step as it insures that when you finish transferring over your website it will be able to resolve on the internet with your current domain name. Do not cancel your old hosting account at this time and you do not need to tell them you are switching yet either.
- Now at this stage you will have hosting accounts with two hosting providers the old and the new one. First make sure either your whole website is on your desktop computer and all the files current or you will need download your entire site from the old host to your desktop computer making sure to back up all your files correctly and keep the same file structure. This can be done by connecting by your ftp software, Dreamweaver, FrontPage, or what ever software you use for maintaining your website and downloading all your files.
Then verify your files and connect to your new web hosting provider by ftp and upload all your files to your website.
- Now that you have uploaded you complete website to your new web hosting provider and verified that all is correct you will need to change your domain names dns. Your new host should have provided you with their domain name servers (dns). If they haven ' t contact them to find out what dns you should use for your domain name.
Dns look like this:
ns1.hostcompany.com
ns2.hostcompany.com
ns3.hostcompany.com
ns4.hostcompany.com
Once you know what dns to use on your domain name you will go to wherever you purchased the domain name from to make the changes. If you have purchased your domain name from a good company you will probably have your own control panel where you can make the appropriate changes yourself. If you do not have your own control panel you will need to ask the company where you purchased the domain name to make the changes for you.
If you have any questions we would be more then happy to help you, or if you choose to transfer to our domain registration company then this will be automated for you. Contact us for more information and help if you need it.
- Once your dns changes have been made you will need to wait at least two days before your site will load off the new host completely. During this two day period your dns is prorogating world wide, and your site will be called up from the old host or the new host every other minute randomly. Once the two days is up your site will only be loading off your new hosting provider completely.
- Now after this period of time you may safely cancel your old hosting service as your website will be fully functional on your new hosting account.
If you have followed all these steps in order then you will have successfully transferred your website seamlessly with no downtime what so ever. If you are transferring to International Web Solutions for your web hosting provider we will be happy to help you transfer your site for free if you need our assistance.
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