Making The Switch From Dreamhost to HostGator

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revlimiter

revlimiter

$333.33/day is my goal!
Jun 28, 2006
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Vancouver Island, British Columbia
www.kimstewart.ca
Ok, I have spent some time talking to HostGator's customer support and they have been very helpful. I love their 24/7/365 Live Support. :eek: Impressive service!

First thing's first, I am quite unsatisfied with Dreamhost. Their hosting has been slow and unreliable. Which means they are not addressing serverload. Which probably means they have upsaled the crap out of their services and cannot afford for everyone to use the amount of upgraded bandwidth + storage they advertise every month.

So I am going with a plan that has set number towards storage and bandwidth per month - HostGator has over 1400 shared servers, and they are under the same roof as The Planet, in Florida - so that is also a good sign. The plan I think I can start off with is Baby Plan, 5GB storage / 75GB bandwidth. $9.95/month.

Just out of curiosity, how many think I should make the switch? Is it really worth it or should I stick around and hope that Dreamhost gets better? (It has been a few months of their crappy hosting already..)
 


One day with crappy hosting is one day too many. I did the same thing and stuck around with my old host for far too long before I got smart and switched to HostGator.

Luckily I was making enough guaranteed monthly income to afford a dedicated server so I'm fully in control of my sites and I LOVE IT.

I recommend taking a month to switch over. Order your hosting with HostGator now. Make sure you have everything moved over. Update your nameservers for your domain. Let it propagate. By having both accounts overlap for a month there is no need for panic and you can make sure everything is moved over, backed up, and working smoothly before you cancel Dreamhost.

Make the switch, you won't regret it!
 
Elvie said:
I recommend taking a month to switch over. Order your hosting with HostGator now. Make sure you have everything moved over. Update your nameservers for your domain. Let it propagate. By having both accounts overlap for a month there is no need for panic and you can make sure everything is moved over, backed up, and working smoothly before you cancel Dreamhost.

Make the switch, you won't regret it!
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I'm still learning alot, so...I have a couple questions, when both accounts are overlapping, where is the site? Is it on both?
 
Jan said:
I'm still learning alot, so...I have a couple questions, when both accounts are overlapping, where is the site? Is it on both?
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Yepp, the site stays hosted on both hosts, just in case.

That way, it will be visible even if the dns is still propagating.
 
kyleirwin said:
What do you do if you have user updated databases?
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You get creative ;)

flickrdown2ny0.jpg
 
kyleirwin said:
What do you do if you have user updated databases?
Click to expand...

This is what I've done to move over a large site I have that has a database to run the message board, poll, chatroom, and user sign-ups.

1. Secure new hosting package.
2. Copy all my files over.
3. Make a copy of my database and install it on the new server.
4. Verify that the entire site is running. Sometimes there will be new paths on the new server and you'll have to update and fiddle with some code.
5. Put up a notice on the website that there will be some down time for maintenance at a specific time/date (I respect my members and I give them advance notice in case they want to wait to ask other's their question about something through the message board, or ask it in advance). I tell them the chat room will continue to be available.
6. When the pre-determined time comes, I change the coding of the form submits so no one can post a new message, or sign-up (or you can just delete the files that handle those forms). Don't worry about making a mess of your code because you've already copied it over and verified it works. I leave my chat room open because although it works off the database, I don't save profiles for it long term so there won't be any data loss when I switch the nameservers.
7. Now that the database can't be updated on the new site, I copy it over to the new server again.
8. I update the DNS for that domain registration with the nameserver information for the new server.
9. I put up a notice on the site on the new server that the maintenance is complete and all site features have been restored. Some people's computer systems can take a couple days before they are seeing the site in it's new location. Others will be able to see it in 20 minutes.

By doing this you ensure no data loss by people still posting on the old site after you've copied your database.
 
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I'm on the Baby Plan with HostGator now. Used a coupon code and my first month only cost me a penny! :)

I have set my DNS records at GoDaddy to point to HostGator's nameservers. Propogation has not fully finished it's course..

So where do I go to actually host the domains with HostGator?? I received an email with an IP and cPanel login, I can access my Control Panel through there.. but when I click Addon Domains, it tells me my domain I have just added is a subdomain of my primary website. I also have to add a unique username and password :confused:

With Dreamhost there is a Manage Domains tab and I just add a domain name, click "Fully host this domain now!" and boom, done. I think the FTP username and password are then set by default to that of my shared server. Yes, because when I log in to my shared server IP I can see all of my websites in there as folders.



Just a bit confused on how to do this in cPanel... In Addon Domains, it says:

Addon Domains are domain names that point to subdirectories within your account.
New Domain Name:
Username/directory/subdomain Name:
Password:


Thanks,
 
I haven't used a shared hosting plan there so I'm not sure.
If you don't get an answer here, sign up for HostGator's user forums. I've always found very helpful people on there to point me in the right direction.
 
Elvie said:
I haven't used a shared hosting plan there so I'm not sure.
If you don't get an answer here, sign up for HostGator's user forums. I've always found very helpful people on there to point me in the right direction.
Click to expand...
Found the answer I was looking for through HostGator's Custom Support chat. Costs $5 to change your primary domain and all Added Domains get deleted. My primary domain is www.kimstewart.ca so I will be sure to keep that URL registered for a long while and make a backup of everything if I choose to make the switch in the future.

All of my FTP accounts for my domains are done through my primary domain. Kind of confusing but I think I will get the hang of it :) As long as they honor their 99.9% guarantee and have faster load times than Dreamhost I will be a longtime customer of HostGator!
 
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