Switch your host without having any downtime
Tired of constant downtime and/or slow performance? Say goodbye to it! More people are switching to icosthost and becoming happy customers.
Switching to icosthost is a Simple, Easy, and Fun Learning experience for many of our customers.
There are just two steps:
- Sign up for a Web Hosting account with icosthost.
- Once your account is active, open a support ticket. The subject should be “Help to transfer website to icosthost”. Provide the following information with your ticket:
- Provide FTP login/password at your old hosting provider.
- cPanel/Plesk login information.
- Login/password to your domain management (required for DNS change)
- That’s it! we will take care of the rest! You may now close this window.
For those, who like to do it themselves, here are detailed steps:
Switching to a new host can be a complicated process. Follow our steps to ensure that your move is smooth and painless:
- Your first step is to order a hosting account with a new host. You should NOT cancel with your old hosting provider, and you shall NOT tell them that you are moving. Keeping it a secret helps, otherwise some hosts permanently terminate outgoing customers resulting in downtime.
- Now, you are ready with two hosting accounts (Old account and New account). Obtain a full working copy of your website. This includes; all databases, scripts, and other necessary files. You can do this using FTP. Once you have the data, FTP it to your new hosting company. If you are choosing icosthost, the good news is that we may transfer your entire site over to our servers FREE of cost. Just open a support ticket after you sign up.
- Take a backup of any databases on the old host (contact your old host for instructions) and upload the backup files to the new host via FTP. You must then create this database at your new host and restore it from backup files; this can be done via cPanel’s phpMyAdmin too. Microsoft SQL database can be users can do this using MyLittleAdmin.
- Emails do not normally transfer, but you can archive your emails from the old host. You can do this by connecting to your POP3 account using Outlook and downloading all emails to your local computer. The new host will not have those old emails, but the new host will be able to get new emails.
- Once you have a copy of your website's new hosting account, it is time to change DNS. You may need to contact the new host to find out what DNS settings you will use for your domain name.
DNS name servers usually look like this (replace "yourhostname.com" with your host's actual domain name):
ns1.yourhostname.com
ns2.yourhostname.com - Once you have the correct DNS, go to the company where you purchased your domain name to make the change. If you purchased your domain name from your host, you usually need to ask them to make the DNS changes for you.
- If you bought your domain name from icosthost, we are more than happy to help you or even make the DNS changes for you.
- Once your DNS changes have been made, you will need to wait 48 hours (two days) before your site will load from the new host. During these 48 hours, your DNS is propagating worldwide and your site will be randomly loading from either the old host or the new host. Once the two days are complete, your site will only be loading from the new host.
- During the DNS propagation period, you can test your website at a new host using a temporary URL.
- After the 48 hours have passed, your updated DNS will be fully functional. You will now contact your old host and cancel your hosting account with them. If you originally bought your domain name from the old host, do NOT cancel your domain registration.
- If you completed all the above steps, you have successfully switched hosts with no downtime at all!
