Changing web hosting companies can instill fear even on seasoned webmasters as something goes wrong you would land in trouble. However we have moved web hosts three to four times and it ended up every time without any significant problem. If things are taken care of systematically, you can also do it fairly easily.

Backup your web. 

First thing to do is to have a full copy of your web on backup CD or DVD or any other external storage media. If you have the web stored locally, you would think that this isn’t essential. However it is necessary and in fact you must have a second backup as archival too.

Signup with your new web host & upload content (your site). 

Before you actually make any move about moving, you must open an account with your new host, host your web there using IP or the host provided temp URL. Once all data (web) is duplicated to the new host, test the new web thoroughly by going into all sections and making sure everything is indeed in order. Once you do this, you can start the transfer. 

Change the Name Servers. 

Now is the time to make changes to the name server configuration at registrar, pointing to the new host. Within 24 – 48 hours, your site should start resolving at the new host. 

Once you change the name servers on the registrar, your site will slowly start resolving at the new host. For some people they will still see the old content depending upon the domain resolution taking place and also sometimes due the browser cache.

Next : Our experience with web hosts