Can one change the web hosting company without the site having to go down for some time (somebody told me min 48hrs). We are launching a daily news site hence will not like to see it down even for a short while.

How difficult is this process?

What are other downsides of changing the hosting company.

Reasons for asking:
We are looking for hosting company to host a International Daily News Web site..and are unable to find a cheap host (< $100 per month) that offers fast access worldwide.

Hence we are looking for a reliable and cheap host for now (considering Webhosting.com, Verio, Zanova, OLM, Global Internet)
Also expect the site to grow specially in Europe and Asia, hence at some stage might want to move to another hosting company, that offers better access in US as well as other parts of the world.

Ideally we would like to pick a hosting company with which, we can scale up, but almost all international providers (Exodus, UUNET and others) start at a minimum of $500 pm.

Any other suggestions will be appreciated,

Thanks,
S. Ballani.
Retention Inc.
(ballanis@yahoo.com)

It is possible to switch a web site without having a second of downtime.
To do so, you must:
- have your old host account still active
- register with your new host
- upload the files on the new host, so you have 2 mirrored sites
- then, switch the DNS info at networksolutions or whoever else is your registrar.
- Wait at least 3 days before deleting the old site.

If you do this, everyone will still see your stuff, but you may loose some e-mails (some e-mails went to the old host instead of the new while transfering. Again, if you have telnet access to your old host, you loose absolutely nothing :)

In my opinion, for a fast host and the type of speed & services you seems to want, you will need a fast shared host upgradable to a dedicated host (or you could go for a co-location / dedicated already)

Having a dedicated allow you to easily increase your bandwidth on need.

Well, thats my opinion anyway, and that's how I would do this :)


------------------
[Félix C.Courtemanche | Web Designer]
[Head Designer | Co-Admin]
[webmaster@can-host.com]
[Can-Host Networks | http://can-host.com ]

Originally posted by S. Ballani:
Can one change the web hosting company without the site having to go down for some time (somebody told me min 48hrs). We are launching a daily news site hence will not like to see it down even for a short while.

The answer is "yes", conditionally. The way you do it is to get your site set up on the new host (it helps if you have relative rather than absolute URLs as you can test them on the new site). When your site is ready, submit the change in hosts to your registrar.

A few days later, possibly as short as 2, the site will be accessed by some at the new location.

However, and this is where the conditions come in, some people will have problems accessing the site for up to about 2 weeks. The problems will diminish with each passing day, but it can still take that long for them to fully disappear as the change is fully propagated throughout DNS servers.

You can minimize the impact by having a redirect page on the old site that directs people to the new one by IP address, advising your visitors about the change in advance and giving them the new IP address, telling them to have their ISPs clear their cache (some don't do it nightly, though many do), and a few other things.

I just went through this disruption for the last time. I have a dedicated server at a company where I feel comfortable moving to a colocated server down the road. I can keep my present IP addresses when I make the change, which means no more disruption due to IP changes.

You may wish to seriously consider choosing your next host based on similar criteria (among others, of course). A reputable, reliable host that you can move up with as your site grows, retaining your IP addresses, will eliminate any similar disruptions. Otherwise, know that they will range from 0 to 2 weeks for some of your site's visitors.


[This message has been edited by Duster (edited 06-13-2000).]

Whatever you do DO NOT GO WITH WEBHOSTING.COM! I am in the process of switching my domain www.customguide.com (http://www.customguide.com) away from them after my site has been down at least an hour every day for the past month! Their e-mail server is slow as molassas (when it works at all), and tech support is non-existent. I was signed up for a e-commerce site except that I never received my shopping cart software. I've sending e-mails and making calls about every other day for the past 3 weeks, up to the highest levels and I still don't have my shopping cart!