How to switch web site hosting companies

Switching hosting companies can be a stressful thing to have to approach if you're not sure how to do it, or don't know where to start, so sit back and let us explain the "Best practice" way to do things.

If you follow this guide, your website should have no downtime at all. We have done this lots of times, so let me explain how it's done "exactly"

Ensure this is done during the hours that both web hosting companies are available to help if need be, and check to see if you can update your own DNS name servers at the place you purchased your domain name from.

Step #1: Finding a new host

In order to transfer your web site hosting to another company, you will first need to find a new company to host your web site with.
Look around the internet for the type of uk web hosting you need, and don't be afraid to ask questions, and do some homework on the company by typing the company name or web site address with the word "reviews" on the end into the Google search engine and read the things that are returned.


Quite often, a customer doesn't know what hosting package would be suitable for their web site, so it's worth gathering a few facts first such as the amount of disk space you need, how many databases you have, email accounts you need and monthly amount of bandwidth your website use's.
If you're not sure how to gather that information, some web hosting companies can take a look in your current website control panel and calculate your needs for you and recommend a suitable hosting package, or you can start with the smallest package, and upgrade it as you need.
It's also worth telephoning them with any questions too as this helps you establish that you can reach them on the phone and speak to somebody who can help, and knows how to help, or guide you.

Once you have found a new web hosting company that you feel happy with, open a new web hosting account with the new host.
Step #2: Prepare your site for transfer

If you have any live database fed areas of your website such as forums, or shopping carts that you don't want people to access during the web site transfer, you will need to close these parts of your website, or block access to them until the transfer is completed.
It's a good idea to temporarily close things like forums and shopping carts because once your web site has been copied to the new hosting companies servers, you don't want data on the old server to change otherwise you will need to re-copy the data to the new server.
So, close your current "web site" or database access, then take full backup of your database (Can be done either via Cpanel or PhpMyAdmin) and leave the website on the current host server closed to prevent any further database updates that will not be copied across.


Note about this:
If you don't know how to close your website, or close forums and shopping carts, or make database backup's, ask your new host who should easily be able to assist with this as it takes only a few seconds to close a website or forum/shopping cart, and taking database backups is pretty straight forward for a web hosting company but can be confusing for a customer who doesn't do it every day.


NEVER BE AFRAID TO ASK FOR HELP!
Step #3: Moving the web site
OK, now you have closed your website, and have a complete backup of your files and database's, you will need to upload all this information to your new web hosting account with the new web hosting company.

Upload everything to new host, and import your database on to new server either via Cpanel restore, or phpMyAdmin, and re-open your website on the new server only asap.

LEAVE THE WEBSITE CLOSED ON THE OLD SERVER!

Step #4 should be done as quickly as possible to minimise database closure, and if both hosting companies are using Cpanel, then this can be reduced to a few hours at most)
Step #4: Update your DNS records pronto
Now that your website is uploaded to your new hosting company, have a check to ensure it's all there immediately after uploading everything.

Your new host will have provided you with a URL to view your website prior to your DNS being changed.

Now, once you're happy everything is in place, go to the web site where you purchased your domain name from, and change your DNS name servers (or IP address) to the ones provided by your new hosting company.

This step needs to be done pronto to minimise the amount of time your database sections will be closed for.

If you don't have access to change your DNS name servers yourself, ask the company you have registered the domain name with to change the name servers for you to the new ones given by your new host.

No email loss during updates:
It's a good idea at this point to go into your email software (Outlook or Outlook express) and change your "Incoming mail server" to just the IP address of your old server so that you can still retrieve emails from the website during that transfer process.


Or pickup any old email after the DNS propagation using the old IP address instead of the "mail.yourdomain.co.uk" mail server info, or via webmail with the IP instead of domain name.

Step #5: Open your database driven areas

Now that the DNS has begun propagating around the world (Can take up to 3 days max) you want your website open again pronto.

As visitor's internet service providers get updates to their DNS records, and visitors start to see your website from its new location, your shop or forum will no longer show as closed because nobody will be viewing the website from its old server anymore (Where you left it closed)

This will also give you an indication too of when your own DNS has been updated as you will also see the open versions, not the closed ones.

Once all the DNS name server info has propagated and your web site is feeding from the new host and you can then close your old web hosting account.

Step #6: Transferring your domain name

Let's assume now that you also want to transfer your domain name to the new web hosting company.

The actual transfer of the domain name is the absolute last thing on the list to do.

Do NOT transfer your domain name until the website has settled down in its new home (Wait 1 week)

Now, your DNS has settled, everything was transferred and completed in a few hours, and you're ready to transfer the domain name.

Let's use a .co.uk name for example here

Order a domain name transfer with your new hosting company (assuming a .co.uk) then get the domain name TAG of the "New" host and give it to the old hosting company and tell them to change the TAG on your domain name to the new TAG ASAP (Normally within 7 days max this needs to be done)


Don't forget this:
Transferring a website is a VERY easy process and can often be done in a matter of minutes or hours depending on the website size and its usage. HOWEVER, it can be an extremely daunting task for somebody who has never done it before, so if you don't want things to go wrong, or are nervous that you might not know what you're doing, ask your new host to help you, they should be happy and able to transfer your entire website for you, and configure your DNS for you too if possible.


Typically, a web site of around 50 megabytes (up to 1000 html pages) with 3 mailboxes and 3 database's can be transferred, and have the DNS all updated in less than 1 hour, but you will need to provide the new hosting company with your account details of the old company server so they can login and access your files for you.

If in doubt, give the new guys a shout!

WESH UK web hosting have transferred hundreds of websites from various different providers and have often faced the same questions over and over again when transferring websites and have also seen many people get it horribly wrong leaving the customer with no website for weeks. So, follow this guide and everything will go smoothly and be completed within hours.