This is intended to be a hold-your-hand guide, to assist even the least intrepid website owner to get over their needless fear of switching to another web host or web hosting package.

It is important to realize that by sticking to your old web host you may be losing out on better deals, more up time and superior back-up and support. All that translates into more income and after all that is why you have a website. Surveys conducted among website owners show that website owners are paying up to ten times more for their current web host than they would for a cheaper and better web host, just because they fear the switching over process. They believe that changing web hosts will be complicated, have direct cost implications and could even lead to the loss or at least the corruption of their website or group of sites. This article intends to help you get over your baseless worries.

If you, as a website owner, started out on the internet by going to a famous branded name for web hosting and you have stuck with it because you think that if they are big and well-known they must give you value for money, then you should reconsider. The odds are that you are paying a premium for the name without necessarily getting the reciprocal service. Do not choose your host because the name makes you feel comfortable, or for that matter because you think it’s a good deal. Rather look at what you are getting and compare the offerings from other web hosting companies. Here is a rule of thumb. You can easily find adequate space for your site requirements, with all the bells and whistles, for under $10 per month, not taking into account handsome discounts for paying quarterly or annually. Another point to watch is the free domain name carrot that web hosts love to dangle. This is not so important, as you will learn later in this article.

Now that we have established that you should look at the benefits rather than the brand name or the bottom line cost, the rule-of-thumb notwithstanding, let us run through the points that you need to check out when investigating alternative hosting companies and their packages.

First, let’s look at capacity. You don’t really need more than 100 megs of space even if you are planning to build a large community or make uploaded albums part of the mix. It is really not necessary to opt for anything above that for the average or even an above-average website. By resisting the temptation to go for more space you could find yourself switching to a superior host for the same or less money.

Second, I mentioned support earlier and that is something you should look at carefully. You should be able to get answers to your queries in 24 hours or less by email. The very best hosts have live chat facilities available during business hours. It is well worth it, for your peace of mind, especially during the switchover process, to opt for a host that has a reputation for good support. Also check before signing up that the web hosting firm has a contactable physical address and phone numbers. Go ahead and test the support system by phoning them, live chatting to them and emailing them.

Thirdly, look at the number of email Pop3 emails your web host can offer. You should be able to get at least 10 and rest assured you will need these in time, as your business grows. Remember, if staff and family use email addresses related to your site, this is a form of advertising for your website. Also your host should offer web-based emails so you can check your email anywhere.

Finally, have a good look at the control panel which the new host is providing. See if there is a demo so you can try it out and get the feel of how user-friendly it is. A plus factor here is FTP access. Ideally you should have 24-hour FTP access so you can make modifications whenever you like. Also look out for a site builder, bulletin boards or chat rooms so you can interact with your visitors using the host’s services. Also check to see if the new host will be able to handle such popular features as PHP, ASP, CGI, Java scripts, Perl scripting or whatever else you have.

Once you have decided to move to a new host, timing becomes paramount. Make sure you cancel your subscription to your existing host before the end of the billing cycle. If you cancel too late you will end up paying for a month’s hosting you will not be using. Forget about refunds from your old host. You will not get one for periods of less than a month. I also recommend at least a week’s overlap when you will effectively have two hosts, the old and the new. You will use this time to ensure that everything works correctly on the new host and that all the files and email accounts are present.

Right, so you have signed up with the new host. Now you must save the files created for the site on your computer so they can be stored and backed-up. If you created the site yourself with a website builder like FrontPage or Dreamweaver you will probably have those files already. If, however, you used a web-based builder then you should download every page of the site along with their dependent files to a folder on the computer. This is easier than it sounds. You can either use an FTP tool to accomplish this or you can use the File>Save As method, which works as follows. Open your web browser (it can be Netscape Navigator, Internet Explorer or Mozilla) then find the file button on the tool bar. Now go to the first page of the website. Once it has loaded, click on “File” then “Save As” and save this and all dependent files to a folder. Do this with each page until everything is saved. Now back this up to a disk.

The next step is to see that any other files on the outgoing web host are backed up. For example, if you have been using web-based mail then forward the emails to an “off-network” email address, or even archive emails to the computer’s hard drive. Remember that once you switch to your new host, all emails at the outgoing host will be deleted.

Now that you have control over the contents of your website, you need to upload all of the files to the new host’s servers. They will provide you with the FTP details required and this is where online and live support is invaluable. Once this is done you should create an email accounts to match each email account from the outgoing web host. This is essential so that there are no bouncing emails later when the switch goes through. This is the point at which you can change the domain name’s main servers, and for this the new host should supply all the information. There will also probably be subsidiary servers.

If you have registered your own domain name then the registrar should have a management area. If your domain name is registered through the outgoing host then you should ensure you have access to change this. It will take a day or two for the name server change to propagate so the domain name points to the new servers. Use the week when you have access to the old host and the new one to make any modifications.

Online businesses simply cannot do without web hosting and though they may or may not be making a lot of money out of their endeavors many an online business would prefer using budget web hosting so as to minimize costs and maximize profits. The importance of finding a good web host is as high as is the case when creating a good website, and so before you start looking for budget web hosting you need to keep in mind certain important factors.

Perfect Uptime

You must be sure that the budget web hosting service that you choose is reliable and will promise you almost perfect uptime. It will of course require that you research different options which will help you avoid problems in the future and you also will need to find out just what managed web hosting is all about.

Besides managed web hosting there is need to understand just what share web hosting is; especially when your needs are centered on finding budget web hosting. Shared web hosting services will be more up your street than managed web hosting because the former is cheaper and therefore chances that it will fall in line with your budget and needs are greater.

When you opt for shared web hosting you will however, even if it is a budget web hosting service, mean that you have to share the server with other users and security as well as traffic will not be as good as when choosing a managed web hosting service. However, it is more suited as a budget web hosting service and therefore more likely to fit in with your plans and monetary constraints.

There are however some pretty good managed web hosting services as well that are also able to provide you with budget web hosting and which also come with many useful features for bargain prices. Such web hosting services will guarantee perfect uptime and will provide you with protection against spam and viruses and you will also get the chance to have as many e-mail accounts as you want things that are vital to proper functioning of your website.

It is up to you to find a web hosting solution that meets a number of parameters including matching your needs gives reliable service, is a budget web hosting plan and offers excellent support as well as backup features. Ideally, a budget web hosting service that provides all or most of these features would make a good choice when it concerns hosting your website and if the host enjoys a good reputation and has years of experience behind them; then you can safely entrust your hosting to such a provider.

Looking for best cheap web hosting plans including PhpNuke? First take a look at some important features which must be considered when choosing your web hosting company:

Reliability and uptime: Hosting uptime refers to the percentage of time the host is accessible via the internet. It is very important your service be uptime (functioning and available for use). It means you can access your account whenever you want to update your web pages, and users can enter your website whenever they refer to your site address. If your hosting service is not uptime it can be catastrophic!

Disk space: Web hosting space is the amount of room that the web host provides to store your HTML, graphic, video/audio and other files. This figure is most commonly stated in gigabytes. If you don’t know how much space you need for your website, you can choose a web host with unlimited disk space, which allows you to build as many web pages as you want.

Bandwidth: Bandwidth (or data transfer) refers to the amount of data that is accessed by your visitors. Web hosts define bandwidth as the total amount of data access from your server over a month’s time. This figure is most commonly expressed in gigabytes. If you don’t know how much bandwidth you need for your website, you can pick a web host with unlimited data transfer, which allows you to support as many visitors as you want.

Ease of Control Panel: It is important that the control panel is easy to use and all information can be accessed easily.

If you are a beginner it is generally hard to you to pick the right web hosting service. There are many websites which display a couple of web hosting companies as the best and leave people confused without being helpful. To make things even more confusing, some hosting companies are cheating and lying to their customers!

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Threehosts.com is a reliable website to help you make the best choice. Their experts have been evaluating web hosting service providers for years, and now they provide you with the most reliable results. They present the information in an easy to understand format that helps the consumer make the best choice within just a few minutes. This is their purpose, to help you make the right choice the first time.

There you can reach the three reputable companies that are leaders in the web hosting industry. They are all easy-to-use and affordable.

http://www.threehosts.com/php-nuke

Looking for best affordable web hosting plans including Drag & Drop Site Builder (WYSIWYG)? First take a look at some important features which must be considered when choosing your web hosting company:

Reliability and uptime: Hosting uptime refers to the percentage of time the host is accessible via the internet. It is very important your service be uptime (functioning and available for use). It means you can access your account whenever you want to update your web pages, and users can enter your website whenever they refer to your site address. If your hosting service is not uptime it can be catastrophic!

Disk space: Web hosting space is the amount of room that the web host provides to store your HTML, graphic, video/audio and other files. This figure is most commonly stated in gigabytes. If you don’t know how much space you need for your website, you can choose a web host with unlimited disk space, which allows you to build as many web pages as you want.

Bandwidth: Bandwidth (or data transfer) refers to the amount of data that is accessed by your visitors. Web hosts define bandwidth as the total amount of data access from your server over a month’s time. This figure is most commonly expressed in gigabytes. If you don’t know how much bandwidth you need for your website, you can pick a web host with unlimited data transfer, which allows you to support as many visitors as you want.

Ease of Control Panel: It is important that the control panel is easy to use and all information can be accessed easily.

If you are a beginner it is generally hard to you to pick the right web hosting service. There are many websites which display a couple of web hosting companies as the best and leave people confused without being helpful. To make things even more confusing, some hosting companies are cheating and lying to their customers!

*********************************************************************

All Web Hosts Presented On ThreeHosts.com Include Drag & Drop Site Builder (WYSIWYG):

Threehosts.com is a reliable website to help you make the best choice. Their experts have been evaluating web hosting service providers for years, and now they provide you with the most reliable results. They present the information in an easy to understand format that helps the consumer make the best choice within just a few minutes. This is their purpose, to help you make the right choice the first time.

There you can reach the three reputable companies that are leaders in the web hosting industry. They are all easy-to-use and affordable.

http://www.threehosts.com/reviews

Looking for best affordable web hosting plans including Drupal, Python & Moodle? First take a look at some important features which must be considered when choosing your web hosting company:

Reliability and uptime: Hosting uptime refers to the percentage of time the host is accessible via the internet. It is very important your service be uptime (functioning and available for use). It means you can access your account whenever you want to update your web pages, and users can enter your website whenever they refer to your site address. If your hosting service is not uptime it can be catastrophic!

Disk space: Web hosting space is the amount of room that the web host provides to store your HTML, graphic, video/audio and other files. This figure is most commonly stated in gigabytes. If you don’t know how much space you need for your website, you can choose a web host with unlimited disk space, which allows you to build as many web pages as you want.

Bandwidth: Bandwidth (or data transfer) refers to the amount of data that is accessed by your visitors. Web hosts define bandwidth as the total amount of data access from your server over a month’s time. This figure is most commonly expressed in gigabytes. If you don’t know how much bandwidth you need for your website, you can pick a web host with unlimited data transfer, which allows you to support as many visitors as you want.

Ease of Control Panel: It is important that the control panel is easy to use and all information can be accessed easily.

If you are a beginner it is generally hard to you to pick the right web hosting service. There are many websites which display a couple of web hosting companies as the best and leave people confused without being helpful. To make things even more confusing, some hosting companies are cheating and lying to their customers!

*********************************************************************

All Web Hosts Presented On ThreeHosts.com Include Drupal, Python & Moodle :

Threehosts.com is a reliable website to help you make the best choice. Their experts have been evaluating web hosting service providers for years, and now they provide you with the most reliable results. They present the information in an easy to understand format that helps the consumer make the best choice within just a few minutes. This is their purpose, to help you make the right choice the first time.

There you can reach the three reputable companies that are leaders in the web hosting industry. They are all easy-to-use and affordable.

http://www.threehosts.com/reviews

Looking for best affordable web hosting plans supporting unlimited bandwidth/disk space/domains? First take a look at some important features which must be considered when choosing your web hosting company:

Reliability and uptime: Hosting uptime refers to the percentage of time the host is accessible via the internet. It is very important your service be uptime (functioning and available for use). It means you can access your account whenever you want to update your web pages, and users can enter your website whenever they refer to your site address. If your hosting service is not uptime it can be catastrophic!

Disk space: Web hosting space is the amount of room that the web host provides to store your HTML, graphic, video/audio and other files. This figure is most commonly stated in gigabytes. If you don’t know how much space you need for your website, you can choose a web host with unlimited disk space, which allows you to build as many web pages as you want.

Bandwidth: Bandwidth (or data transfer) refers to the amount of data that is accessed by your visitors. Web hosts define bandwidth as the total amount of data access from your server over a month’s time. This figure is most commonly expressed in gigabytes. If you don’t know how much bandwidth you need for your website, you can pick a web host with unlimited data transfer, which allows you to support as many visitors as you want.

Ease of Control Panel: It is important that the control panel is easy to use and all information can be accessed easily.

If you are a beginner it is generally hard to you to pick the right web hosting service. There are many websites which display a couple of web hosting companies as the best and leave people confused without being helpful. To make things even more confusing, some hosting companies are cheating and lying to their customers!

*****************************************************************************

All Web Hosts Presented On ThreeHosts.com Support unlimited bandwidth/disk space/domains:

Threehosts.com is a reliable website to help you make the best choice. Their experts have been evaluating web hosting service providers for years, and now they provide you with the most reliable results. They present the information in an easy to understand format that helps the consumer make the best choice within just a few minutes. This is their purpose, to help you make the right choice the first time.

There you can reach the three reputable companies that are leaders in the web hosting industry. They are all easy-to-use and affordable.

http://www.threehosts.com/unlimited

One of the biggest pains about having a web site is changing web hosts. I ought to know, I’ve changed over half a dozen times in the last three years. Each time has been a step up and with each move it becomes easier and easier to change.

Why change web hosts?

In many cases, your web site is the first and only thing that your customer sees (besides, hopefully, your product after they make a purchase). This is especially true if your company does not have a real-world presence such as a store or office. Thus it is important that your web site be available to your visitors (and customers if your site is commercial) twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

Not only must it be available, but your web site must load quickly. If your host computer is too slow, it doesn’t matter how much you optimize your graphics and HTML, cut down page sizes and perform other actions.

Other features must work properly. These include CGI routines, autoresponders, PHP, ASP and SSI scripts, and, very importantly, shopping carts and credit card services.

All of this is so important that you must keep an eye on your site. I use two services: alertsite and internetseer. Both of these ping my site occasionally to determine if it is up. Any errors are reported to my email inbox. Why do I do this? Two reasons: (a) it’s critical that my site be online all of the time, and (b) these services provide a third-party record of any downtime, which is useful when attempting to get fees refunded.

These two services also measure response time, which is very useful to determine how well your site responds to your users browsing requests. These two factors, uptime and response time, are the most critical measures of web site performance. A consistently bad number in either measure is more than enough reason to find another host.

Of course, if your CGI routines stop working mysteriously or your autoresponders stop responding, then by all means shoot off a trouble ticket to your host. You have a right to expect these types of issues to be quickly and politely fixed. If they are not and the errors continue, then consider moving to another host.

Getting Ready to Move

There are a number of tasks that you should be performing on a regular basis. You see, you cannot predict when you might have to change web hosts. It could be that they are suddenly sold and their level of service drops, or they upgrade their computers which causes a series of new problems. You can be sure that you will only find out about these things when your web site stops working or becomes unstable.

Another reason to be performing regular maintenance tasks is the possibility of disasters. A hacker could deface or even destroy your web site. Your credit card could be closed, which might cause your host to close down your site until you pay. Any number of other disasters could occur, which make it very imperative that you have a continual set of procedures in place to be prepared for anything.

What do you need to do regularly?

Monitor your site – As I stated earlier, be sure you use a site monitoring service to keep an eye on your web site. That way you will know immediately if something happens.

Backup your site – You should perform all edits to your pages on your own computer and upload them to your site. Never edit your site pages directly. This, by it’s very nature, ensures that a copy of your site always exists on your own computer system.

However, you may also have databases stored on your web site which do not originate from your computer. These might include mailing lists, demographic data, links and other similar things. These items must all be copied to your own hard drive on a regular basis.

You can set up your favorite FTP program to do scheduled downloads of selected databases, or you can just manually copy them on a regular basis.

In addition, your web host should be backing your site up daily. In many instances, these backups are available to your as downloadable zip files. Be sure and copy these down to your system once in a while – perhaps once a week.

Don’t forget about such things as autoresponders, CGI routines and anything else which you may enter at your site control panel. You must ensure that you have a backup of everything.

Keep a log – Be sure you know everything that you’ve done to your site. You should list all of your autoresponders and their names, track any subdomains which you have set up, and anything else which you may do. This way if you have to change you can recreate your site quickly and efficiently.

Only use a domain name – Always reference your site via a domain name which you have purchased and control. Never, ever use the URL provided by your web host, as tempting as this can be at times. I ran into a situation where my web host URL was somehow entered into a number of search engines, and I discovered I was getting tens of thousands of hits from these URLs. This forced me to keep paying for the old site after I switched hosts, just to be able to redirect the traffic to my new site.

Make sure you register your domain elsewhere – The first time I registered a domain name, it seemed so convenient to just use my web hosts domain registration service. What I didn’t know is they became the registrar, and it was a nightmare getting the domain transferred to a different one. By registering the domain at a different company, you will most likely get a better price, and you will gain independence from your web host.

Scope out a few hosts in advance – Even if you are completely happy with your current web host, at least take a few minutes and have a few names ready just in case. This way if you are forced to move, you have a pretty good idea of where.

Moving To A Different Host

If you are lucky, you get to make the choice about moving. In that case, you can simply upload your new site, get it all working, then transfer the domain and cancel the old site. This gives you a large amount of control, because you don’t have to transfer the domain and cancel until you are happy with the new host.

If for some reason your web host has cut off access to your site, then you have to move fast. This is where the monitoring services come in handy – you know immediately when your site fails.

These are the steps that I follow when I change hosts.

1) Determine that a change is necessary. Ideally you are the one making this determination. Of course, if your web host decides for you, then you have to perform the rest of these steps very quickly because you are down.

2) Find a new hosting company. Read all of the information on the internet that I can find. I also learned something the hard way – check the hosting companies own forums for customer complaints. There were several times that I would have avoided trouble had I followed this advice.

3) Review the features of the hosting company to be sure they offer what you need. If you have any questions, be sure and send an email off to their sales department.

4) If you need a storefront, shopping cart and/or merchant status, be sure you resolve any issues you may have before laying out any money.

5) Sign up for the hosting company with the right size package, but the minimum amount of time (one to three months). This gives you some time to check them out without laying out too much money up front.

6) Once the site is active, start uploading files.

7) Modify any scripts as necessary. Test all of them to be sure they work.

Upload any autoresponders and set up your email forwarding as desired.

9) Create any subdomains, if you use this feature.

10) Of course, set up any databases. If your other site is still active, then just load the databases on the new site with data from the most recent backup – you just want the data for testing purposes. If it’s not active, then load the databases with the most recent values you have.

11) Set up your storefront, merchant services and credit card processing, if necessary. Test as thoroughly as you can.

12) Once everything works and is tested, transfer the domain to the new host.

13) If you have the option, freeze your databases on the old site about 12 hours after transferring the domain. Disable all activity to the old databases, then copy to the new site.

14) Once the domain transfers (usually a day or two) test thoroughly again. Unfreeze the databases as soon as you can.

15) Once everything works, cancel the old account.

16) Depending upon the circumstances of the move, demand a partial or full refund. It does not matter what the hosting companies policies are – presumably you moved because they were not fulfilling their contract. This means they are in breach of contract, so demand your money back.

17) If they will not give it back (and they probably won’t), check with your credit card company to see what your options are – if you’ve paid within 60 days via credit card, you may be able to get the credit card company to get your money back for you. This is where your monitoring logs come in very handy (assuming downtime or response time was the reason you left) – you can prove your case using third party data.

18) Why the focus on getting a refund? Because the hosting company did not provide contracted services – and no one should be rewarded for failure to fulfill their contract. The only real weapon you have is your money. Demand a refund.

19) Once you’ve moved, be sure and practice the maintenance steps mentioned earlier in this article. You may have to move your site again, and you want to be prepared.

So basically, moving to a new host is always a traumatic, time consuming event. You should take pains to be prepared so that the trauma is reduced in duration and loss.

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