Too many webmasters the thought of transferring their site to another provider may seem more daunting than staying put with their current cruddy web hosting company. Those of us who are experienced in hosting multiple web sites or  like us who are testing & transferring sites from one service to another know that the move can be a fairly simple process so long as you are prepared.

There are a few things that you must have in order to transfer your site to another provider. They are:

Your current web site files backed up to your computer.

The username & password for all of your email addresses for the domain name you intend to transfer.

The logins for your current and future web site hosting provider.

The logins & administration capability for managing your domain name. If you registered your domain name through your current web host, they will have to assist you with moving to your new provider.

The simplest way for me to explain an analogous description of the procedure to someone who is a novice in transferring sites is to equate your web site files (plus email user & PWs) as a lamp, your domain name as the electrical cord from the lamp, the web hosting providers as wall sockets and your DNS management as 2 light switches, each which powers 1 of the wall sockets.

So your web site files & email addresses are a lamp. The lamp is currently built & housed in the servers at your current host. Your first step is to backup & save all of those files, log into your new hosting provider’s servers & build the (lamp) your web site & email addresses) within their servers. Once your (lamp) web site files look correct & you have added all of your existing email addresses to the new servers you are ready to switch to your new host without any service interruption or downtime.

Now that the site is built you will need to be able to manage the DNS (domain name servers) for the domain you are looking to move. This is ability is controlled within your domain name administration control panel.

If you registered a domain name with a registrar like DomainDirect.com or Godaddy.com you can make these changes yourself. If your web hosting provider registered the domain name for you, most likely they will have to make the changes as they usually have the only access to the domain management system which controls your domain.

So the web hosting providers are like the wall sockets, domain management (DNS changes) are the switches controlling the power & your domain is the cord from the lamp (your site) to the servers. At this point your site (lamp) is still pointed, through the domain, to the old provider.

When you signed up for your new web hosting service you should have received the new DNS that the new service provider would like for you to point your domain to. Once you receive that information (and your site looks good on the new host’s servers) you would go into the domain management DNS control area & you will change out the old DNS for the new DNS.

If you registered your domain name through your current web host, you will have to contact them and ask them to change your DNS records for you. If your web host refuses to change your DNS for your domain name or refuses to give you access to change the DNS yourself you should contact your better business bureau and ask what legal actions to take. Your domain name is considered your intellectual property and you may take legal actions against a host withholding those DNS changes against your instructions.

It is advisable to move the place of registration from your old host to your new host once you move in order to avoid renewal fees or complications for that domain name by the old host. You can also renew the domain name early with a true registrar for their renewal fee and from that point on you would have full management capabilities of that domain name in the future.

Both your new host or your new registrar should be able to easily help you move the registration away from the old host.

Once this DNS change has occurred your domain will propagate across the internet to point to your new service provider & the files & email addresses setup on their servers. Propagation across the internet could take between 12 – 48 hours.

During this propagation period the access to your site’s location will vary & change depending upon the location of the visitor. For those areas whose propagation has already taken effect, they will see your site as it looks on the new host’s servers. If the propagation has not taken effect for a particular area, then the visitors will still see your site as it will still be live in that area from the old host’s servers.

During the actual time when propagation occurs,  what happens is like simultaneously turning off one light switch while turning on the other light switch at the same time, so like turning off one lamp while turning the other on at the same time. The transfer of the site to that visitor within the propagation area should be seamless and you should have no downtime.

This is an analogy which has worked well for me in the past to explain the transfer scenario to beginners, however if someone thinks that they may have a better way to explain the occurrence I would appreciate it if they could email me through the contact us page.

Thank you,

Bestwebhosting2006 editor.