Transferring your Website and/or Domain to SmartHostPlan.com Services can be very easy with a little preperation. First things, determine if you are wanting to move your domain name and website at the same time, or if you want to move one or the other only.
Transferring just Website Hosting
Transferring just a Website can be very easy. First, make sure you can log into both your account at your current website host using FTP, SFTP or SSH. Next, make sure you can access your domain name either through a control panel, or at the site were you have your Domain Name Hosted (godaddy.com, Network Solutions, etc).
Once you have all of this information gathered, do one of the following two steps:
Step 1; Alternative A: Using FTP or SFTP, download everything from your current website to your local computer.
After you’ve completed the FTP/SFTP download, upload to your new SmartHostPlan.com account using the instructions you were sent via. email or over the phone using FTP.
Step 1; Alternative A: Using SSH, and if you are comfortable with Shell Commands, use the following command in the root folder of your existing site’s index page (normally index.html, index.php, index.cgi or Default.html).
tar -cf yourwebsite.tar * | grep gzip yourwebsite.tar
From here, log in via SSH at SmartHostPlan.com using the instructions you were sent via. email or over the phone. Use the following command in side of the public_html folder.
wget http://www.yourwebsite.com/yourwebsite.tar.gz
Make sure the change yourwebsite.com to the actual name of your domain name at your existing hosting. After the website is copied over, you just need to untar the archive!
tar -zxvf yourwebsite.tar.gz
Step 2: Now you need to login at your domain provider, or contact the hosting company you are working with and ask them to update your domain names DNS Settings. Each hosting provider has a different method, but SmartHostPlan.com is here to help you through the transition.
The new entries you need to use are:
ns1.smarthostplan.com ns2.smarthostplan.com
Finished: Now all you have to do is wait for the internet to update the DNS routing tables and your website will be pointing to your new hosting service at SmartHostPlan.com! This can take as little as 15 minutes at the root level, but several hours to 2 days depending on various ISP’s and other factors.
Transferring A Domain Name
Transferring a Domain Name to SmartHostPlan.com’s Tucows OpenSRS account is very easy! You will access to your current domain names control panel in order to verify that the Administrative Contact Email Address is correct, and obtain the Auth-Code a unique code that each Domain Registrar must provide in order to allow you to transfer domains.
After doing this, email the Auth-Code to help at SmartHostPlan.com (or use our Contact Form) and we will initiate the transfer for you.
You will receive an email at the Administrative Contact Email Address with some instructions from OpenSRS to click through a link and verify some information. This is normal, and you should click through and verify this information.
After this is complete, its just a matter of waiting for the Registrars to transfer the domain name. Most Transfers through SmartHostPlan.com are only $15 flat rate for most Top Level Domain’s per year, and add one additional year to your expiration date of your domain name.
Transferring both Domain Name and Website Hosting
While this isn’t a requirement that you as a customer transfer both services to SmartHostPlan.com, we usually do ask that you as a customer consider transferring the domain name to OpenSRS. OpenSRS offers free DNS Services on all domains through their server, which helps at time maintaining SmartHostPlan.com uptime. They also have one of the most compedative, open Registration Agreements, and over the last 11 years they have been a great company to work with.
When transferring both your Website Hosting and Domain Name, we ask that the Website Hosting instructions are followed first. This way we can make sure that everything is copied over before making any DNS Entry changes that may make it difficult to connect to the old hosting service.
Questions, comments or need help?
SmartHostPlan.com is here to assist you, and we want to make sure to make your transfer a success. We offer personalized instruction, and with your permission we are able to do all of the work for you.
A small consulting fee may apply in some cases, but all fees will be stated up front in clear language before we do any work on your behalf.
We look forward to working with you at SmartHostPlan.com!