Changing Web Hosts

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One of the biggest pains about having a web site is changing web hosts.
Iought to know, I've changed over half a dozen times in the last three ... time has been a step up and with each move it One of the biggest pains about having a web site is changing web hosts.
Iought to know, I've changed over half a dozen times in the last three years.Each time has been a step up and with each move it becomes easier and easierto change.Why change web hosts?In many cases, your web site is the first and only thing that your customersees (besides, hopefully, your product after they make a purchase). This isespecially true if your company does not have a real-world presence such asa store or office.
Thus it is important that your web site be available toyour visitors (and customers if your site is commercial) twenty-four hours aday, seven days a week, 365 days a year.Not only must it be available, but your web site must load quickly. If yourhost computer is too slow, it doesn't matter how much you optimize yourgraphics and HTML, cut down page sizes and perform other actions.Other features must work properly.
These include CGI routines,autoresponders, PHP, ASP and SSI scripts, and, very importantly, shoppingcarts and credit card services.All of this is so important that you must keep an eye on your site. I usetwo services: alertsite and internetseer.
Both of these ping my siteoccasionally to determine if it is up. Any errors are reported to my emailinbox.
Why do I do this? Two reasons: (a) it's critical that my site beonline all of the time, and (b) these services provide a third-party recordof any downtime, which is useful when attempting to get fees refunded.These two services also measure response time, which is very useful todetermine how well your site responds to your users browsing requests. Thesetwo factors, uptime and response time, are the most critical measures of website performance.
A consistently bad number in either measure is more thanenough reason to find another host.Of course, if your CGI routines stop working mysteriously or yourautoresponders stop responding, then by all means shoot off a trouble ticketto your host. You have a right to expect these types of issues to be quicklyand politely fixed.
If they are not and the errors continue, then considermoving to another host.Getting Ready to MoveThere are a number of tasks that you should be performing on a regularbasis. You see, you cannot predict when you might have to change web hosts.It could be that they are suddenly sold and their level of service drops, orthey upgrade their computers which causes a series of new problems.
You canbe sure that you will only find out about these things when your web sitestops working or becomes unstable.Another reason to be performing regular maintenance tasks is the possibilityof disasters. A hacker could deface or even destroy your web site.
Yourcredit card could be closed, which might cause your host to close down yoursite until you pay. Any number of other disasters could occur, which make itvery imperative that you have a continual set of procedures in place to beprepared for anything.What do you need to do regularly?Monitor your site - As I stated earlier, be sure you use a site monitoringservice to keep an eye on your web site.
That way you will know immediatelyif something happens.Backup your site - You should perform all edits to your pages on your owncomputer and upload them to your site. Never edit your site pages directly.This, by it's very nature, ensures that a copy of your site always exists onyour own computer system.However, you may also have databases stored on your web site which do notoriginate from your computer.
These might include mailing lists, demographicdata, links and other similar things. These items must all be copied to yourown hard drive on a regular basis.You can set up your favorite FTP program to do scheduled downloads ofselected databases, or you can just manually copy them on a regular basis.In addition, your web host should be backing your site up daily.
In manyinstances, these backups are available to your as downloadable zip files. Besure and copy these down to your system once in a while - perhaps once aweek.Don't forget about such things as autoresponders, CGI routines and anythingelse which you may enter at your site control panel.
You must ensure thatyou have a backup of everything.Keep a log - Be sure you know everything that you've done to your site. Youshould list all of your autoresponders and their names, track any subdomainswhich you have set up, and anything else which you may do.
This way if youhave to change you can recreate your site quickly and efficiently.Only use a domain name - Always reference your site via a domain name whichyou have purchased and control. Never, ever use the URL provided by your webhost, as tempting as this can be at times.
I ran into a situation where myweb host URL was somehow entered into a number of search engines, and Idiscovered I was getting tens of thousands of hits from these URLs. Thisforced me to keep paying for the old site after I switched hosts, just to beable to redirect the traffic to my new site.Make sure you register your domain elsewhere - The first time I registered adomain name, it seemed so convenient to just use my web hosts domainregistration service.
What I didn't know is they became the registrar, andit was a nightmare getting the domain transferred to a different one. Byregistering the domain at a different company, you will most likely get abetter price, and you will gain independence from your web host.Scope out a few hosts in advance - Even if you are completely happy withyour current web host, at least take a few minutes and have a few namesready just in case.
This way if you are forced to move, you have a prettygood idea of where.Moving To A Different HostIf you are lucky, you get to make the choice about moving. In that case, youcan simply upload your new site, get it all working, then transfer thedomain and cancel the old site.
This gives you a large amount of control,because you don't have to transfer the domain and cancel until you are happywith the new host.If for some reason your web host has cut off access to your site, then youhave to move fast. This is where the monitoring services come in handy - youknow immediately when your site fails.These are the steps that I follow when I change hosts.1) Determine that a change is necessary.
Ideally you are the one making thisdetermination. Of course, if your web host decides for you, then you have toperform the rest of these steps very quickly because you are down.2) Find a new hosting company.
Read all of the information on the internetthat I can find. I also learned something the hard way - check the hostingcompanies own forums for customer complaints.
There were several times thatI would have avoided trouble had I followed this advice.3) Review the features of the hosting company to be sure they offer what youneed. If you have any questions, be sure and send an email off to theirsales department.4) If you need a storefront, shopping cart and/or merchant status, be sureyou resolve any issues you may have before laying out any money.5) Sign up for the hosting company with the right size package, but theminimum amount of time (one to three months).
This gives you some time tocheck them out without laying out too much money up front.6) Once the site is active, start uploading files.7) Modify any scripts as necessary. Test all of them to be sure they work.8) Upload any autoresponders and set up your email forwarding as desired.9) Create any subdomains, if you use this feature.10) Of course, set up any databases.
If your other site is still active,then just load the databases on the new site with data from the most recentbackup - you just want the data for testing purposes. If it's not active,then load the databases with the most recent values you have.11) Set up your storefront, merchant services and credit card processing, ifnecessary.
Test as thoroughly as you can.12) Once everything works and is tested, transfer the domain to the newhost.13) If you have the option, freeze your databases on the old site about 12hours after transferring the domain. Disable all activity to the olddatabases, then copy to the new site.14) Once the domain transfers (usually a day or two) test thoroughly again.Unfreeze the databases as soon as you can.15) Once everything works, cancel the old account.16) Depending upon the circumstances of the move, demand a partial or fullrefund.
It does not matter what the hosting companies policies are -presumably you moved because they were not fulfilling their contract. Thismeans they are in breach of contract, so demand your money back.17) If they will not give it back (and they probably won't), check with yourcredit card company to see what your options are - if you've paid within 60days via credit card, you may be able to get the credit card company to getyour money back for you.
This is where your monitoring logs come in veryhandy (assuming downtime or response time was the reason you left) - you canprove your case using third party data.18) Why the focus on getting a refund? Because the hosting company did notprovide contracted services - and no one should be rewarded for failure tofulfill their contract. The only real weapon you have is your money.
Demanda refund.19) Once you've moved, be sure and practice the maintenance steps mentionedearlier in this article. You may have to move your site again, and you wantto be prepared.So basically, moving to a new host is always a traumatic, time consumingevent.
You should take pains to be prepared so that the trauma is reduced induration and loss. Article Tags: Credit Card, Response Time, Hosting Company Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com .