Changing hosts smart
Time To Switch
Most people, especially advanced web based business owners or webmasters often change their hosts because they often find a better service than the current host is offering. The industry is very competitive, they want a better deal with lots of features. It is natural for webmasters to look for a good hosting company, researching on them to check their offers and their quality.
However, there are times those popular hosts could give you a headache. Regardless of positive feedbacks by many, bad things can happen unfortunately. So, you can be the one to think and look for another server in the future. It is actually not a bad idea to keep an eye on new and popular web hosts in case your host becomes too big to provide a good support. In any case, whatever the reason people have, here are some basic steps to change hosts as fast and as smooth as possible:
Find A New Host
There is not much to tell you. You really need to have good reasons why you want to switch to a new host from the current one. Don't just decide because they are cheap. Read peoples' reviews, especially how they provide customer services. Ask also how they can help you with transferring your site. Transfer fee can be free in many web hosts, and they should generally do everything for you, but it's better if you can do it by yourself unless the site is extremely big. Check also what type of control panel they use. Switching to an unfamiliar control panel is usually not good. You can surely get used to it, but it's so much easier if they offer the same you have been using.
Back-up Everything
After finding a new web host, start downloading all the files from the current web host. This seems so obvious, but how important this is! You don't want to lose all those important files even though most hosting companies blatantly advertise that they make regular backups. Sometimes, they can lose your files. You should also know that hosts usually don't guarantee the safety of your data. If you read their TOS carefully you'll find that they are not responsible for any loss of data. Serious webmasters regularly download backups everyday. You should at least do that every other day. Besides, another copy doesn't hurt, does it?
Uploading Files
Upload your website via a FTP program. Make sure you have an access for FTP uploading at the new host. User name and password for uploading files by using FTP program are usually as same as your login information at the admin control panel. Get used to their control panel if it's a new one. Check all files are in right folders and keep the same structure as they were in your old web host.
Moving Databases
If your website is database driven, using php programming language for example, you will have to upload a database to a new host. Before that though, you will have to create a new database. Keep the same database name so you won't get confused. The username also should be the same if you can. The password can be changed, and if you do so, make sure to change it also on the appropriate config. file so that this file can access to your database.
Changing NameServer
This takes 2 days sometimes, depending on the host. Your new web host should email you with the service you have just bought along with the instruction of DNS and link to your admin control panel. Go to your domain registrar and change the old DNS to new one. Check the confirmation email for the change to make sure the process was complete.
