45 replies to this topic

[-ASO- Tim]

Q: How can I transfer my existing website to A Small Orange?

A: Moving can sometimes be a troublesome problem with hosting. However, if you follow these instructions things should go fairly smoothly.

Moving requires two major steps: Copying over your site's contents, and pointing your domain to our servers. The major headaches come from the 2nd step because it often means a 2 day difference between your changes and them become effective. This is often referred to as a DNS delay because the DNS (Domain Name System) changes take this two day delay to happen. The biggest headache will come with email, which is most affected by this delay.

So, here's how to avoid this problems most optimally:

1) Copy all files from your original host to the account given by us. Log on via FTP to our servers using the IP address and account details given to you in your welcome email, and copy files to the public_html folder. If you have any databases, back them up using whatever tools you previous host provides, and restore them using PHPMyAdmin under the MySQL section of our control panel. If you need help with the restore, contact support and we can do this step for you, if you wish. You should now have a duplicate copy of your site on our servers, ready to be used.

2) If you have any dynamic sections of your site, turn them off on the old host, if they have such a feature. If not, inform your visitors that you're in progress of a move and new content added or changed at this point may not show up due to the move.

3) Use email forwarders on your old host to point your email to a free account with Hotmail or Yahoo!Mail temporarily. This will ensure no mail message gets lost. If your host provides webmail integrated to your site (usually at yourdomain.com/webmail), you do not have to do this, as you will still be able to access your mail through the webmail interface. Log into our control panel and create any mail accounts on your old host with our servers.

4) Go to your registrar and change the nameservers on your domain to ns1.asmallorange.com and ns2.asmallorange.com. Because each registrar has their own unique web interface, there may be a variety of ways of doing this. Consult their help or support systems if you need help with this. This change will be the one that takes about 2 days to complete. During this time, some people might catch the change before you do. There is no way to control when they will pick up on the change, but it takes at most 2 days to happen.

5) At some point, your ISP will pick up on the changes to your domain and start pointing you to our servers for your domain. Double check that all items are intact and working. If not, contact support and we can walk you through overriding the changes to your domain temporarily to allow you to access your old site and recover any data.

Provided these steps are followed, your website should be transferred with as minimal downtime as possible. If possible, your old host may be able to lower the TTL (Time To Live) value for your domain, which causes the delay to shorten. You will have to contact them, although they may not be able to do this for you.

A Small Orange support is always available to answer any questions you have with this guide and moving hosts in general. If you're unsure about any of the steps here, feel free to contact us and we can walk you through things

[Trippin]

Just my thought, but wouldn't this be better put under the "Getting Started" forum?

[-ASO- Tim]

Good idea

[Marc]

Here's a burning question.  When we switch the nameservers to ASO, do we have to do anything like tell our old host to stop pointing our domains to their servers?  Would it cause any conflict?

[Chris]

Nothing has to be done to your old host.  When you switch your nameservers to ASO you have effectivly stopped your old host from serving up your site.

Beyond canceling your account with them, you don't need to notify them that you have switched your nameservers.  If they decided to keep hosting your old content after you've canceled, that's their problem.  But it won't cause a conflict as the "pointing" is done by the nameservers.

[kyletech]

Q: How can I transfer my existing website to A Small Orange?

A: Moving can sometimes be a troublesome problem with hosting. However, if you follow these instructions things should go fairly smoothly.

Moving requires two major steps: Copying over your site's contents, and pointing your domain to our servers. The major headaches come from the 2nd step because it often means a 2 day difference between your changes and them become effective. This is often referred to as a DNS delay because the DNS (Domain Name System) changes take this two day delay to happen. The biggest headache will come with email, which is most affected by this delay.

So, here's how to avoid this problems most optimally:

Why? If you have a heck of a lot of files and sql, 1 is harder

1) Copy all files from your original host to the account given by us. Log on via FTP to our servers using the IP address and account details given to you in your welcome email, and copy files to the public_html folder. If you have any databases, back them up using whatever tools you previous host provides, and restore them using PHPMyAdmin under the MySQL section of our control panel. If you need help with the restore, contact support and we can do this step for you, if you wish. You should now have a duplicate copy of your site on our servers, ready to be used.

It took me several hours to do this.

2) If you have any dynamic sections of your site, turn them off on the old host, if they have such a feature. If not, inform your visitors that you're in progress of a move and new content added or changed at this point may not show up due to the move.

If you have a bulletin board, you can also Mass E-mail your users to tell them about the change. This is a great way of doing things. Also Oekekis, and other mailing lists  that you host can help you.
vBulletin: Admin CP>Users>Send E-mail to Users

3) Use email forwarders on your old host to point your email to a free account with Hotmail or Yahoo!Mail temporarily. This will ensure no mail message gets lost. If your host provides webmail integrated to your site (usually at yourdomain.com/webmail), you do not have to do this, as you will still be able to access your mail through the webmail interface. Log into our control panel and create any mail accounts on your old host with our servers.

You may also want to change the configuration for your e-mail program if your e-mail info is different.

4) Go to your registrar and change the nameservers on your domain to ns1.asmallorange.com and ns2.asmallorange.com. Because each registrar has their own unique web interface, there may be a variety of ways of doing this. Consult their help or support systems if you need help with this. This change will be the one that takes about 2 days to complete. During this time, some people might catch the change before you do. There is no way to control when they will pick up on the change, but it takes at most 2 days to happen.

It didn't even take 24 hours for my change to happen.

5) At some point, your ISP will pick up on the changes to your domain and start pointing you to our servers for your domain. Double check that all items are intact and working. If not, contact support and we can walk you through overriding the changes to your domain temporarily to allow you to access your old site and recover any data.

Provided these steps are followed, your website should be transferred with as minimal downtime as possible. If possible, your old host may be able to lower the TTL (Time To Live) value for your domain, which causes the delay to shorten. You will have to contact them, although they may not be able to do this for you.

A Small Orange support is always available to answer any questions you have with this guide and moving hosts in general. If you're unsure about any of the steps here, feel free to contact us and we can walk you through things

My ISP doesn't own my domain name, the Registry at Info Avenue owns my domain  name. Actually, whose ISP owns their domain name anyways. My ISP just owns my router.

[davy]

Chris is right; your DNS record controls who the world sees as yourdomain.com.

That said, it is good to make your transfer, test it, then remove the old stuff.  

A few good reasons:
- the old host is spared any doubt/wondering if you'll need the data someday,
- they can reuse the drivespace,
- they can't snoop thru or repurpose your data and code for themselves (don't laugh, I've heard of it happening),
- and you're spared any risks from unauthorized access (a hacker using your sourcecode to find vulnerabilities or back doors, client data being abused, customer lists being resold to spammers, or whatever).

So, I always clean things up, much as I'd do when moving out of any physical space.

And Kyle... nearly everything you said is about half-correct.  DNS ripple for default-TTL (86400 secs) takes several days, because of how DNS data caches and propagates.  That is the *worst* case, and many people will see your site in less time.  As for whether email outages or transfer effort is worse, losing email for days impacts everyone in a company, which for most commercial sites  is more of a problem than one guy's spending hours copying sql and data and html and tweaking it.  

That said, your advice on communicating with staff and clients/contacts as you make the shift is excellent.  I always make sure that phone numbers are included for EVERYONE involved, too.  Email outages become almost minor if everyone (including the company's usual business contacts) knows to resort to phone calls.

[Pont]

might be worth mentioning trance's guide.

Trance's guide for new websites

cheers

[ESC]

I was with another host before coming here called eUKHost, when I paid for an account with them. I also used the option to get a new domain through them also. The domain is registered with ECON. Am I right in saying that I need to contact my other host and ask them to change the DNS entries to point the domain to you. As I can't see any options were I can change these DNS settings myself.

[Mitch-old]

Hello,
Since you have no control, you will need to have them make the changes. You may want to consider transferring the domain to a different registrar, if they will allow you to.

[ESC]

Mitch' date='Oct 28 2005, 5:04 PM' post='34068']
Hello,
Since you have no control, you will need to have them make the changes. You may want to consider transferring the domain to a different registrar, if they will allow you to.

Thanks for the reply.

I've sent them an email asking if they will change the DNS to the small orange entries.

[nstephens2k3]

I transfered my friends website and the DNS took less than 12 hours to propogate (the first one). The 2nd domain (add-on domain) took only a few hours to switch DNS and was already accessible on ASO servers..

[Neal]

What's the IP for transferring hosting?  My register needs the nameservers and the IP address

[v0id]

What's the IP for transferring hosting?  My register needs the nameservers and the IP address

Details should be in your welcome email

[alpha]

What's the IP for transferring hosting?  My register needs the nameservers and the IP address

Didn't think you needed the ip address as well?

[IBBoard]

I didn't for my .com and .co.uks that I transferred over, but I know some other people have asked at my old host before now. If you need the IPs of the Nameservers, just ping them (although why they can't just do that I don't know!)

[//Lee]

Hey there.

Just wondering how long it usually takes for the welcome email to be dispatched if payment has been made via paypal?

Thanks.

[Orien]

Depends on the time that you paid for the account. Mine arrived in 20 minutes.

[solidghost]

I transfered my friends website and the DNS took less than 12 hours to propogate (the first one). The 2nd domain (add-on domain) took only a few hours to switch DNS and was already accessible on ASO servers..

You need to know that others may not have their dns propagated that fast. So even if your ISP points correctly to your new host, others may not.

[MRGTB]

Can I ask a question. I have a domain with namecheap.com and use there nameservers.

In the email I got from you here when I setup my account, it said I can just use the two IP Addresses in the email to point the namecheap.com "nameservers" to you.

Is this right? Or do I have to use the asmallorange nameserver ns1 and ns2 "addresses" instead. As I though just using the IP's would point my namecheap.com nameservers to you.

If I can just use the IP Addresses, do I have to unlock my domain first before I add the IP Addresses, then lock the domain after I add them. Or can I just add the IP nameservers with the domain locked and it will work after 2 days etc. Because I never unlocked my domain when I added the nameserver IP's.

Edited by MRGTB, 29 December 2006 - 10:04 AM.