I know I can become complacent when things are working just fine, even if economically it doesn't make sense. Such was the case with my own family of professional websites - not including this blog. I did the math, after five years with the same hosting company for mail and web and EEK! What a dope. I woulndn't let my clients do this, why would I want to waste enough money in a year for a romantic getaway with my husband?
Switching was a scary, but necessary task. My website and email are my entire business. If they don’t work or go down, I’m missing correspondence, potential business and look like an idiot.
Deep breath. Zen position. Turn on iTunes and let’s do this!
Here are the steps I went through the other night to switch to a new hosting provider including email:
Contacted the new company. I chose GoDaddy because I like them. They pick up the phone, they don't outsource and they are always patient and helpful. I let them know my goal and plan, asked questions and for their advice.
I found out all costs involved in making the transfer of domain(s), if there is any charge.
I found
out if I needed to change my existing domain set up to enable this change.
Time to start
the transfer process with the GoDaddy.
This took a few days due to the approval process at both ends First it generated an email from them with two codes that I needed complete the switchover. The existing company needed to generate the final code. Methods vary. Existing company will either do it for you or send you instructions of how you can get the code.
Armed with all three codes, I called the new company to walk me through it and hold my hand so as not to trip myself up as I completed the transfer process.
Next, I set up email accounts with the new company to have it ready when I pulled the plug on the old company.
STATUS: My sites are still pointing to the old location; and they are set up with the new location. Mail is still coming from old location but set up on new to be ready.
AFTER HOURS: To quote
Bob Foss/Roy Scheider, “It’s SHOWTIME!”
Put a graphic or word on some page so that you’ll know when
the change has propagated.
Get new FTP (upload login) info from new hosting company. Once you have this info, either you or your webmaster upload your test page to the new location.
Get your new mail
settings from the new hosting company too:
Incoming server, outgoing (if
different than your current),
account
name if you have to change it from current set up.
Did you change the password? Need that too.
I called the new hosting company and had them help me “turn it on” to their server. It takes the fear out of the task. Yes, I could have gone through the tutorials, guessed - but it was bedtime, storytime and baths. Total chaos in my house at night.
For the next few hours I visited my test page to see when it came up. Know that it will soon. You may have the old one stuck in cache (memory) so do a “Control” + “F5” to force it to show the newest version. When you see it, time to hold your breath once again and switch your mail.
Almost done. I went into my mail program and changed the accounts to the new settings.
Have someone send you a test if you can’t send yourself one from another account.
Do you have a contact form on your website? That most likely needs to change to the new form processor/sender script. New company can provide you the path.
Check all pages using the “Control” + “F5” to make sure they are all the new location. Test forms – make sure it all works.
Congratulations!
You were brave. You did it!
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