Metafluence

Switching hosting providers

From time to time it becomes necessary to move your website from one hosting company to another. Reasons for moving might be due to:

• You need a different server environment, such as moving from a Microsoft server to an Apache web server.
• You need more features, such as disk space, bandwidth, or email boxes and someone else has a better deal.
• Your traffic is increasing and you need to upgrade from a shared server to a dedicated box.

Reasons for moving can go on and on, but one thing that has been fairly common among my clients is their concern about how moving will impact their site and email. I’m writing this post because I find myself having to explain this stuff over and over and it would be smart for me to just refer them to a post that answers all of their questions.

Domain names vs. hosting

The first thing that I’ve found causes confusion is the difference between a domain name and hosting. A domain name is the address of your website and it will end with a .com, .org, .net, or some other TLD. The truth is that every device that is connected to the Internet has a numerical address called an IP address, similar to a telephone number. However, the framers of the Internet felt that we already had too many numbers to remember and decided that it would be easier if we used words. They established the domain name system to pair word based addresses, like apple.com, with numerically based IP addresses. That means when you type apple.com into the address field on your web browser, your computer asks your ISP if they know what IP address the server is for the domain name you just entered. It’s like calling 411 with a keyword and then being instantly connected to the phone number.

Your hosting is the server, which stores your website and routes your email. You can have hosting without owning a domain name, but instead of having a .com or another domain name, people would access your site using an IP address, such as 206.105.223.4. There are different types of hosting options to meet the needs of the market, such as the following:

Shared server

This is when mulitple websites are hosted on a single computer, thus the name shared. The advantage is that hosting is cheaper due to the hosting company’s hardware savings. The disadvantage is that the server can run slower from having multiple sites on a single box. For sites with low traffic volume, this is the way to start.

Dedicated server

When a single website is hosted on a single server it is known as a dedicated server. The advantage of this is that your site can handle larger volumes of traffic and is more secure compared to a shared server. The disadvantage is that it is more expensive because you have a whole server to yourself.

Multiple servers

When your site is really bustling with traffic, you may need more than one server to handle the load. The advantage to this approach is that it allows your site to handle a very large amount of traffic. And, the disadvantage is that it can get to be quite expensive to maintain multiple servers.

There’s more to hosting than what I outline above, and for more detailed information I recommend Wikipedia’s article on servers.

Sometimes people order their domain name and hosting from the same company, but it’s not uncommon for people to buy a domain name from one place and their hosting from another. It’s also quite common for people to host their website with the company that supplies them with their Internet connection, also known as an ISP. Nevertheless, it is important to understand that domain names, hosting, and your Internet connection are all different services that can be supplied by unique vendors.

Throwing the switch

Switching hosts is a three step process—Step 1) Move all files from your old server to your new server, Step 2) Point your domain name away from your old server to your new one, and Step 3) Continue checking your old server for website updates and email for 3 days after the domain name is updated.

I’m not going to cover Step 1 here because if you don’t know what you’re doing, then get help. You don’t want to mess up this part and there are too many variables to cover than this post is interested in.

Step 2 is a matter of changing the DNSs for your domain name with your registrar. To do this you’ll need to go to your registrar’s website; such as NetworkSolutions.com, GoDaddy.com, or Dotster.com; and login to your account. Look around their admin controls and find where to change the domain name servers that your domain points to. Most of the time your domain will be managed by 2 DNSs and they are usually named ns1.yourhostingcompany.com and ns2.yourhostingcompany.com. If you’re not sure what to do here, contact a professional.

While steps 1 and 2 are pretty straightforward, it’s Step 3 that often confuses people. The reason you need to check your old server for 3 days after a switch is because there are thousands of domain name servers around the world and it can take that long for all of them to update.

There are 13 root domain name servers that are the top level authority to what IP address a domain name is pointed. When you update your domain name with your registrar, they are updating the records on those 13 root servers. All of the other domain name servers check in with the root at least once every 72 hours.

Therefore, if someone in Kansas is sending you an email 24 hours after your switch and the domain name server that their email is being routed through hasn’t updated since your switch, then that email will be sent to your old server. After 72 hours the transition should be complete and you should be able to shut-off your old server.

The same is true for websites. If you have a blog, for example, then someone may be connected to the Internet via a domain name server that is not updated to your new site, and they may leave a comment on a post on your old site. Similarly, if you publish a new post, that same person won’t see it until their ISP updates their domain name records.

For small websites, making such a transition is usually transparent. But, if you have a large web site and a plethora of email boxes, you will want some professional help to aid in the transition. Professional system administrators can do tricks like redirect your new server to point to your old one until 72 hours have elapsed, then remove the redirects so the transition is instantaneous. You can also benefit from them having tested all of the services to verify everything works properly, sometimes the differences in preferences on servers can break things.

No matter who you are, don’t be afraid to move hosts if that’s what your organization needs to do. Even if you do have a bumpy transition, it’s usually less problematic than staying with a hosting situation that doesn’t meet your needs.