Sorry if I'm posting in the wrong forum, or if this has been answered before , and actually I know it has been kinda answered here and there, but didn't understand too well, sorry for my ignorance.
Here is the situation: My website's been down for 8 STRAIGHT days, thanx to F**KHEADS at CWI, and after it goes back up, I'm switching staight to either VO or Catalog. So during that time, my site'll be down even more, so I'm trying to see if I can use my PC as a web server during that period. I have over 3000 members in my site that are all angry and curious about what happened to my site, so any help here would be VERY appreciated.
So can anyone provide EASY-to-understand info on how to use my PC as a temporary web server? I'm using Win2k Professional, any help, any links will be good. Thanx for your help in advance :)

I don't really see why you'd want to do that. Wouldn't it be better to simply place the site at its new location directly? Wherever you end up, your account should be ready immediately, just upload your site and make the nameserver changes with your registrar. For a couple of days, as the new dns info propogates, some users may still get directed to the old site, but once that situation stabilized your move is complete.

Vector,

DNS is going to be the hardest thing to transition. Upload your old files and get your scripts working with your new host.


Once you've done this, put the pedal to the metal and do one of the following

1. Transfer your domain DNS to your new provider
2. Beg your current provider to point their DNS
for your domain to your new provider (they
aren't obligated to do this and even if they
do, it sounds that since they are down, it
might not do much good).

If its just your scripts/database that is having problems, you can redirect the whole site to another server by using the Redirect directive in .htaccess

If your current content is changing and you need to constantly copy stuff over, look into using rsync.

We've done all 4 methods for moving clients to our service in emergencies.

Hope some of this helps.

Regards,

Ummm what I was asking about was if I can have my site online on my PC while transfering my site into the new server? I know it's just for a few days, but I DID see a post here from someone saying he did that easily, and his visitors to his site never really noticed that he even moved his site to a new server, and asked him when he's going to move the site, when the guy replied that he already did. Ain't this kewl? :)
I tried to search that post for the past 30 minutes, with no luck, that post had so far the best way to make it happen, I'll try looking again later for the post, or can someone give me a link if he knows?

I believe that you are referring to a post I made...

I did not say that I hosted the sites on my own computer. I set the site up on the new account as you normally would. For testing purposes, I change the DNS for the domain name by making an entry in my local hosts file, which allows me to access the site at the new location using the domain name, exactly as it would be after the global DNs change.

During this time, the site is still on the old server, and everyody else will be accessing it there until I update the nameservers (or change them at the registrar). Neither the old host or the new host need to be involved or know about the process. The only thing is you need to be in control of when the nameserver changes are made.

Hosting the sites on your own (local) computer in the changeover is possible, but would not gain you anything, would be a lot more work, and would require extensive configuration of your computer to act as a web/mail/ftp server.

Whew, thanx for quick reply, I was still searching on my own, till I found your post, I'll take a better look, thanx for the quick reply. But as for now, I guess I should just transfer my site to Venturesonline asap and go on from there :)

Yep, just found the post finally, thanx, got a good understanding of what you meant now :)

you're welcome. :)

for those wondering... the post being referred to is at
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?threadid=6787&pagenumber=2

Actually I wrote an article on precisely this topic for SitePoint. You may find it useful.

http://www.webmasterbase.com/article.php/313

Thanx, I'll take a look at it :)