So I am a half owner of a messageboard and my business partner who hosted the site on his servers, did the admin duties, web design, etc. is now out of the picture. He is going to be emailing me a file containing all the messageboard content. My questions are: 1. Are there any steps on my end I can do to ensure that none of the messageboard content is lost or corrupted? 2. Where should I look to host the website (I know nothing about this) 3. What needs to be done to have the most seemless easy transfer of the website from his servers to a new one to eliminate downtime or other problems? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have no clue how much to expect to pay for hosting and who would be good at it, and have no idea on how to do the transfer. All I know is I am getting the messageboard in a file.
I would start backing up your files and database to prevent any lose of files. Do you know what control panel your site is hosted on? If you move to a new host and they run the same control panel it can make it easier to move over. There are a lot of good web hosts out there. What specifics do you need?
I know my business partner backs up the site nightly, but whenever I try to back up everything from the admin section and save it to a zip file I keep getting these server overloaded messages. As far as the control panel my site is hosted on, I have no idea. How would I find that out? All I know about the site is this: Forum version: SMF 1.1 RC2 (more detailed) Current SMF version: SMF 1.1 RC3 PHP version: 4.3.9 MySQL version: 4.0.13-nt Server version: Xitami But I don't think that's what you're looking for. Regarding my hosting needs, well, I really just need to have the site hosted for now, that's first and foremost, but don't know how much space I need.
We run php and mysql, take a look at our site www.soniqhost.com and see if our hosting accounts will fit your needs. If so we can help move your site over. I would also recommand that you ftp into your account and download your files as well as the mysql database.
You may want to close your site, download the database, upload the database to the new servers, then edit your vB to use the database that's on your future host, reopen the forums, copy all the files and folders from the current host to the future host and then change DNS. It's the best way I'm aware of, with the least downtime for the forums. The trick is in letting your current vB installation use your future host database. That cuts a lot of downtime as compared to closing the forums, moving everything and wait for the DNS to propagate.
Hi we offer php and mysql hosting with cpanel please take a look at our plans http://dicewebhosting.com/hosting.php We will also transfer your site for you free of charge
Thanks for the tip! ....and thanks to everyone else for all the help so far! I am not sure how this transfer with my current host is going to go. He is very difficult to get a hold of. All I know is he's zipping the messageboard to me in an email within a week.
I would ask him for access to the database (phpmyadmin) and ftp so that you could get a copy your self if you havnt got it? A week is a long time to wait just for a copy of your site
site is still up and running in the mean time. He's really busy working 14+hrs a day on his own business.
What forum software are you running? You can go into the admin control panel of most forum software and do a database backup. As for moving the site. I recommend you go with a host that has the same version of MYSQL as the server you are on now. It will cause less problems in the transfer. It will be easier. I am always willing to help if you need it.
I've gone into the admin CP and tried that; every time I try to do a DB backup I get a message that the server is overloaded. So my current MYSQL version I guess is 4.0.13-nt and you are saying I should find a host that has this same version. I'm currently running a free Simple Machines Forum software, but was thinking about upgrading to VBulletin software. Would this be the optimal time to do the upgrade? Am I going to lose all my information if I swap?
You will not lose all of your information if you use the importer and it is done correctly. If you are using SMF and you go into the admin control panel to do a backup, make sure you fix all errors first. That is more than likely what is causing your server overload error. Do you have root access to the server itself?
I did an error fix, and still cannot download anything else other than the table structure. I cannot save the table data. I do not have root access to the server.