What is the best way to switch website and e-mail hosting?
A frequently-asked
question about best windows hosting:
Hello, my father just acquired a company and has tasked me with all of the e-mail and website hosting duties. We want to switch for security reasons and I am not sure the best route to take. I would like to keep the same e-mail addresses (there are only two we need) and I would like to switch the website to a host that allows me to use my own merchant. I do have a server but we don’t not want to use it for website hosting we want to use an outside company, are there any that you would recommend over others? I have very rudimentary knowledge of internet programming. As for the e-mail, is there a way I could host that from my server and retain the original e-mail addresses? I am using windows server 2008. The current host is ix webhosting. I own all of the domain names so those are not an issues. Any suggestions or information would be greatly appreciated. Im like a fish out of water when it comes to this stuff.
Answer: Warning! Using unreliable Windows hosting can leave you devastated. Web hosting is one of the most important part of your online presence and can mean the life or death to your business.
Before we give you an absolute answer, these are seven things to look for in a good web hosting. An excellent hosting:
- has knowledgable Live Chat to help you clear your confusion about which hosting plan is right for you,
- has at least 30 days money back guarantee
, - gives unlimited webspace,
- offers unlimited bandwidth,
- has friendly Site Builder with more than 4500 free website design templates to choose from,
- has Application Vault to quickly install apps like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, OSCommerce, ZenCart and more
- can be easily upgraded to VPS or one of the best dedicated server plans if and when your business require.
To answer your question, many experienced web developers suggest to try Hostgator. If you need an “unlimited” hosting plan, experts usually highly recommend going with Hostgator because they are the best best domain host around.
Try to read any review that says Hostgator sucks. Most of them probably tried to abuse the generous resources given by Hostgator. HG has an amazingly long, 45 days money back guarantee so you have ample time to test them out. They are rated A+ by Better Business Bureau which shows their commitment to customer satisfaction. You also do not have to pay for the first month. You can just try their fully functional hosting service – you pay only $0.01 (you need to use the special coupon ). Do you know any other hosting company that can give you that kind of assurance? Anybody can grab an account from Hostgator for almost FREE.
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Warnings about Hostgator
A word of warning – Hostgator may not be for everyone. Shortcomings of Hostgator include:
- No free domain name – but you can easily get a domain name from the best domain registrar such as Godaddy or Namecheap for $10 or less. HG chargers $15 for a domain name.
- You need to pay full price after your first invoice – well, they need to make money too and all the support and great service do come with a cost.
To be honest, no web hosting service is perfect. If you are still unsure if HG is right for you, or you have specific query about anything at all, try the Live Chat
at HG. They are fast and knowledgeable.
To help you to find a good host I suggest you to consult this top
http://thebesthostingweb.com
After you choose one host, you must change your domain NS1 and NS2 with their NS from the cpanel of your domain registrar. IT will take about 24-48 hours to make this change. After that you can setup again your emails name@yourdomain.com.
Good Luck.
As far as your website goes, any large domain website such as godaddy will work fine; I have found them to be very reliable.
In regards to your email server: what you can do is literally just change the ip address and update it with your DNS registry. This way you will be able to keep everything exactly as it is and your ip will be changed as you want it. If you want to migrate to a different machine, Windows server has the capability of migrating.
I have to disagree with the last answer ‘any’ host will not do at all. Frankly there are currently a lot of bad hosts out there, onf of the biggest 1and1 was voted by web developers as the worst host. I experienced them myself and have to say it took me 2 weeks to work out how bad it was and move to a new host.
My current reccomendation is either HostGator or OcsSollutions, I have had painless hosting with both of those.
Now about your move. The best way is to allow an overlap in hosts, it might cost you an extra month in the one you are leaving, but it is a painless way to move.
But first we have to talk about your web site, if you need to move the actual site contents then there is move involved than I can talk about here, if you talk to the new host they may talk you through the backup of the current site and help you install it on the new host.
As for emails, there is the possibility of losing touch with emails for around 48 hours. So it is best to arrange the move for a friday afternoon, then by monday the name should have propagated through the DNS servers and slaves so that you can set up your two email addresses again.
The move itself. Many hosts offer to move the site for you, I was bitten once by this, they didn’t do it and I lost a couple of days. Instead have them tell you what their name servers are, you are usually told this anyway in the initial emails after signing up, there will be two addresses something like -
ns1.NameServer.com
ns2.NameServer.com
Make a note of these two.
You need the name of your registrar, or your currently site might give you direct access to change the DNS settings for your domain name. Note that if it is a registrar you will need a working login for those before you start this process. Either way make sure you can get at the place where you set the DNS domains, it is often called ‘Nameservers’ in the settings.
Type in your servers that you made a note of earlier. Then save the settings. See a note below*.
Right it now takes time to propagate, sometimes this is very quick, I have had one before that was ready within 1/2 hour, but I have had others that took the full 48 hours. Try it now and then over the weekend.
Note to do with where you set the Nameservers. If you set them at the registrar, make sure you have made a good note of who they are and what you need to login, write it neatly and put it into your dad’s safe in an envelope. If this hosting is successfull it could be two years before you need that information again, at the time it comes to renewal.
With that in mind, where is the renewal letter going to go? Is the address in the registrar the address you want the renewal to be sent? If not you need to change that in the registrar records.
Note 2 – If you changed the nameservers via your old web host then you need to make sure you have control of that name and not them. Have a look to see who they register with (they might be using several registrars so you might need to ask them), you want to be able to go directly to that registra.
Basically though I know you are nervous of making the change, the process as far as moving the domain is very simple, in the database there is your domain name and two (or more) nameservers, your actions simply change those two nameserver urls. So don’t be nervous of what you are doing, just be carefull to keep notes, assume that any user names and passwords to get access to that database will be forgotten so make notes of them and keep them safe.
When you have finished (this sounds morbid but it isn’t meant that way) sit back and think ‘If I or dad gets hit by a bus tomorrow, will my dad’s company be alright. When time to renew the name comes will dad and I get the letter and email reminder from the registra? If in two or more years time we decide to change hosts, does who ever was not hit by the bus have enough information safely stored in an envelope in the safe so they can carry on without the other?
Don’t be nervous of changing hosts, only be nervous of losing information that allows you to change hosts again at some later date.