I'm looking to transfer a old site of mine from being hosted with someone else who also designed it and has all the page content on his HTML developer. The bills due and I want to take control of the hosting, not so much the content of the site. He's charging $360 per year and I'm now able to do it myself much cheaper. Questions: What are the steps I need to do to move the site from his hosting to my new hosting? Also do I need to move the whole website and content to a web development program of mine or can I just leave it as it and only change the hosting? I'm not looking to update the site at this stage. Thanks
Hello there, In order to move the site, you are going to need a backup of what is existing. Is there a control panel that is currently being used that you would be able to access to generate a full backup? Is so, take that route, then, once the backup is done, ensure you have a copy of it on your local computer. Are you being hosted on a windows or Linux server? Regarding your second question, you should not need to have the program used to make the site unless you need changed made. Chris
Hi Chris Thank you very much for your very helpful post. I really appreciate it. I'll need to ask about the control panel option to do a full backup. I'll also need to ask about being hosted on windows or linux. Can you please explain what the difference is as to whether or not its hosted on windows or linux? Why do I need to know this? Sorry if the questions seem basic but in any case I'm very grateful for your help.
Another thing I need clarification on is... once I create a new site on my hosting then make sure the DNS is changed at where the domain is held and I've made a full backup... how do I ensure the site gets published to the new host? Can I import the backed up file via my cpanel? So how do I publish the existing site to the new host? Thanks.
The easiest way to do this is if both servers are using cPanel, or a similar control panel. When it really comes down to it though, if your site is fairly simple, there isn't really a whole lot to do. If your site doesn't utilize databases, it is just a matter of copying your site from your existing host (probably using FTP) and uploading it to the new one. You'll need to recreate the email addresses, etc. You are also a little out of order as far as changing the DNS. You don't want to change the DNS until AFTER you have your website up and running on the new host. If you change it first and then upload your site to the new host, there is going to be downtime. If you set up your website at your new host and then change the DNS, the impact will be minimal.
WSWD: A very clear answer so thanks. That's made it a lot clearer. In FireFTP I can log in to the current server and I can see a cpanel folder and when I change it over I'll be using Cpanel as well. I see 2 possible options but I'd like to know which is better... 1. go into FTP and copy all existing files down to my computer. Set up new site on my host plan with different FTP logins. Copy all saved files back via FTP to new host server. Change DNS. OR... 2. Use cpanel and backup full website (I can do this) then transfer website to new cpanel and host (not sure how to do this in Cpanel yet). Change DNS. How does that look? Thanks. P.S. The site is fairly simple. Pretty straight forward and nothing complex on it. Just a basic concreting site.
Since they are both using cPanel, the best method is going to be to do a full backup and restore that on your new host. A full backup has to be restored by the host (the option to restore it does not exist in the normal user cPanel). As far as #1, that is fine. The only issue is that any databases will not be copied, nor will email addresses, forwarders, etc. It will only copy the files. But if you don't mind setting them up again on the new server, or you have a backup copy of the databases, it really doesn't matter. #2 will probably be the easiest and most thorough, but as I mentioned above, the full backup will have to be restored by your new host. Hope that helps!
WSWD: thanks again for the clarification. I now understand the importance of doing it via cpanel rather than my option 1 above due to a complete transfer rather than a 'messy' and potentially incomplete trasnfer. I'm a little confused by your comment regarding 'A full backup has to be restored by the host (the option to restore it does not exist in the normal user cPanel). ' So if I am using company XYZ to host my sites do you mean I have to get them to do a full backup and restore to the new host? Sorry for the confusion. Again thanks for your great help.
Not quite. You can do (or should be able to do) a full cPanel backup with your current host. It is under the "Backups" area in cPanel. However on your new host, you will not be able to restore that backup yourself. Your new host, on the new server will have to manually restore the full backup for you. How we do it, we just have our clients upload the full backup file to their account via FTP. We then move the file to where it needs to be on the server and run the full backup restore. So as long as you can make a full backup in cPanel, you should be fine. It it just your new host that will have to restore the backup.
Hello there, If both hosts are using cPanel, contact your new host, as many hosts (myself included), will transfer your site(s) over to them for free, all you need to do is ask! Chris