Points to Remember When Switching Web Hosts
Points to Remember When Switching Web Hosts
There’s a lot to keep track of when you’re transitioning from one web host to another. This article will help you keep the important issues in mind.Switching your website to a new web host is a lot like moving in real life. You don’t want to do it unless you really have to. You try to get all your research about the new location completed before you have to move. You do your best to see that it suits your needs as well as, or better than, your old location. And it involves so many details that you practically despair of getting it done without forgetting something unless you’re compulsive about making lists.
Fear not. I’m going to give you some gentle reminders about the things you need to accomplish. While the precise details will vary depending on your website’s particular needs, if you keep these points in mind, you’ll feel right at home with your new host in no time. Well, you might still need to track down the closest good Italian restaurant, but you know what I mean.
They say that location is the most important thing in the real estate business, but for websites, we’re going to start with the new residence itself–which, in this case, equates to storage, at least for openers. How much space is all your stuff taking up now? Does your new home (the new web hosting plan you’ve chosen) offer you at least that much space? You should check with your current web host as to how much space you’re using now, or you can check your web hosting control panel. If you expect to add files to your website that are likely to take up a lot of space as time goes on, you might want to start with a little more space than you’re using now–and even check whether your new host has plans to which you can upgrade.
By the way, storage in cyberspace may not be as straightforward as storage in the real world (storage in the real world isn’t entirely straightforward either, but that’s another matter). If your web host’s storage plan offers you 1 GB of storage, what is counted against that amount? Does that include only the files of your website, or does the space taken up by your emails and log files count as well? You need to find out this information from both your old host and your new host. If they count storage differently, it could be unpleasantly similar to moving into a technically larger apartment with a less open layout and smaller closets.
Points to Remember When Switching Web Hosts – Do All the Utilities Work?
Now we need to get a little more into the technical details. You need to know what operating system your current web host uses, as well as what operating system is used by your new web host. Are you dealing with Windows or a Unix-based system? You might not need to know exactly which flavors, but it wouldn’t hurt. The reason you need this information is that your website actually might not work on an operating system different from the current one.
One good example of this would be a move from a Windows to a Unix-based server. It won’t necessarily break things, but it could. If you use scripts created with a Windows-based programming language, you’ll have real problems getting everything to work right on a Unix server. True, this little detail could turn out to be a non-problem, but it’s one of those things that is much better to know in advance. Nobody likes unpleasant surprises when they move!
Following up on that same thought, make sure that your new hosting plan supports all of the scripts you plan to use on your website. In fact, you should check this well in advance. Best case, you don’t have to make changes at all; worst case, the web host won’t support them at all. The most likely case is somewhere in between; the new web host supports them, but you may have to make some modifications to get them to work properly (and you’ll want to have those in place ahead of your “move-in date”).
Unless you create your website from the HTML up by typing everything into a text file (and maybe even then), you should also find out what website creation and editing software your new web host supports. FrontPage? Dreamweaver? What versions? Make sure your new host supports the same software you use, down to the version number. And if you’re thinking about changing your software, you’ll also want to make sure the new host supports what you will probably be changing to.
Okay, I don’t mean these literally–though these days with VoIP and other interesting technological convergences, who knows? But seriously, in this case, I’m taking the analogy of moving to a new home a step further, with “telephone and cable connections” standing in for the way you and your website communicate with the rest of the digital world. This is one issue that could really bite you.
The most obvious way this could come up as a problem is with bandwidth. Like the amount of storage you take up and the operating system being used, you should find out the amount of bandwidth you use from your current host, and check how much your new host supports. Laugh if he says that you’ll have “unlimited bandwidth” and get him to explain what that really means. Just like a landline or a cell phone, you may be able to make as many phone calls as you want to wherever you want–but wait until you see the bill at the end of the month. This is of particular concern if you own a website that eats bandwidth for breakfast by hosting podcasts, videos, or any kind of streaming content.
If you’re a business or organization, you should also pay attention to the email account situation. You probably use a certain number of email accounts, autoresponders, and mail forwards with your current host. Will your new host let you have a similar number? Actually, if you think you’re going to grow, you may want more than your current number. (And this is of course another reason to check what counts against the amount of storage your plan permits, as I mentioned above).
At this point, it’s worth mentioning that you should set up the email accounts you currently have on your new web host’s server before transferring your domain name to the new server. It will help smooth the transition. And lots of website owners overlook this little detail.
Points to Remember When Switching Web Hosts – Taking Care of Business
If I wanted to stretch the changing residences analogy, I might describe this part of the task as being somewhat akin to getting a local doctor, finding out where all the roads go, and learning the location of all the businesses essential to keeping your household running. But analogies can only go so far. In fact, depending on your website, what I’m about to mention could be a lot more important than those details.
Because the truth is, it’s not like you’re moving a home so much as moving a business. At least, that’s true if your website is being used for business. If you sell anything from your website, for example, you probably have a shopping cart set up for your customers to use. Is that shopping cart provided by your current hosting plan? If so, will you be able to move it to your new web host? If not, will your new web host support your current shopping cart? And if the new web host won’t support your current shopping cart, will it provide you with a suitable replacement shopping cart? After all, the last thing you want to do is upset your customers; if they’re used to one particular shopping cart, it seems a little unfair for them to have to learn how to use a new and significantly different cart just because you moved–unless, perhaps, the new cart is genuinely easier to use than the old one.
Finally, it’s time to do some heavy lifting. Your website files will need to be uploaded to the new server. Do you know how to do that? If you don’t, will your new web host do it for you? That’s a real question with several possible answers. The new host might refuse to do it, for liability reasons. Or it might move your files for free. Or it might charge you a fee for moving your files.
After your files are moved, you want to make sure that the site looks right and works the way it’s supposed to on the new server. Once you’ve checked that out, you need to go to your registrar to change your nameserver information, which you can get from your new web host. It could take up to two days after you make this change before your site goes live to the web on the new server. At this point, you want to use a whois utility to check your domain name and make sure the new nameservers are listed. If they are, you can finally cancel your old web hosting account. Welcome to your new home!
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