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Best way to transfer hosting without down time

PremiumMember
limengxx
Posts: 1
Joined: 02 Dec 09
Trust:
22 Feb 10 4:35 am

Best way to transfer hosting without down time

I just bought a website. domain estd 2004. A link and article
directory site. This is my first time.

I have no problem with transfer of domain. The domain has been pushed to my GoDaddy account. I need advice on hosting. I have just purchased “reseller plan” hosting at Hostgator. What is the best way to avoid down-time when transfer from the seller’s hosting to my hosting, in the 2 different scenarios below:
1. Seller’s hosting is not Hostgator, my hosting is Hostgator.
2. Seller’s hosting is Hostgator, my hosting is also Hostgator.

I looked at Hostgator tips, it is still confusing and not clear ( at least to me).

I send query to Affilorama general support, I was advised to post here. Would appreciate if somebody with experience can provide step-by-step advice.

To all Affilorama members and guests, feel free to post your link and articles to my newly acquired site.
http://www.versuss.net

Cheers and good day!
  • 1
faradina
Posts: 1895
Joined: 01 Jun 09
Trust:
23 Feb 10 8:27 am

 I'm afraid that when you are migrating a site to a different hosting server or a different hosting server account, having no downtime is not possible.
If it involves pointing the domain to another hosting account or server, it will take 24 to 48 hours for the domain to be propagated.
I do not use hostgator so I can not provide step by step advice. The best source of step by step advice about this would be hostgator. You should get in touch with their support team.
  • 1
Site Admin
aletta
Posts: 3392
Joined: 09 Jul 06
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23 Feb 10 10:49 am

 I have to disagree, sorry Fara!

What you need to do in either situation, is get all the files for the website. Maybe the seller can download them and zip them up for you, or maybe they can give you FTP access and you can download them to your computer yourself.

Then you will upload them to Hostgator. So you will have an exact replica of the site on your Hostgator hosting.

What you need to do next is set the DNS to point to your Hostgator account.

Yes, as Fara said, it can take some time to propagate (which means "let the whole internet know where this domain points to now") but until propagation is complete, the domain will still be pointing at the old hosting spot.

So long as those files on the old hosting account haven't been deleted immediately, it will be business as usual.

Once the whole internet is clued up that the domain is holding hands with your Hostgator account, the files can be deleted from the old hosting account pretty safely. And it's ok... because you've got an exact replica on your own hosting, remember.

Some things might not be quite so straightforward as this.... for instance, if it's a Wordpress site then you need to grab databases and add them through convoluted geeky measures. Or if there's an active user forum, you have to somehow get that all transferred over. But if it's just a straight site with no blog or forum, it shouldn't be hard at all.
  • 1
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Site Admin
aletta
Posts: 3392
Joined: 09 Jul 06
Trust:
23 Feb 10 10:59 am

 Oooh. "Read the post, Aletta."

Link and article directory site could be trickier. Definitely databases and stuff involved there. I would first ask the seller if he has any bright ideas. He built the thing, I'm guessing he knows how to move it!

It's hosted on GoDaddy, by the way.
  • 1
Are your changes not showing up on your website? Try doing a hard refresh! http://www.refreshyourcache.com/en/cache/
 

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