We have created 9 steps to ensure a smooth transition from your current hosting provider to AT&T Website Solutions

Transcription

1 We have created 9 steps to ensure a smooth transition from your current hosting provider to AT&T Website Solutions

2 Contents Step 1: Planning... 3 Step 2: Back up your website!... 3 Using FileZilla... 3 Step 3: Sign up for your AT&T Website Solutions hosting account... 5 Step 4: Uploading your website content... 6 Publishing your website with Microsoft FrontPage... 8 Step 5: Testing and previewing your website... 9 Step 6: Create your accounts... 9 Step 7: Change your Nameservers... 9 Step 8: Test your live website Step 9: Configure your client... 11

3 Step 1: Planning Create a website move timeline to ensure that a successful move of your website files over to AT&T Website Solutions. You may want to let your customers know that you are making some changes in the event they are trying to contact you during your move process. Here is an example timeline: Day 1: Back-up your current site to your computer. You will find how-to s beginning in step 2 of this document Signup for your new Website Solutions plan. Review the setup instructions that we will you upon signing up for your Website Solutions Plan. Day 2: Upload your website content to Website Solutions. Setup your accounts. Preview and test uploaded content. Change DNS to Website Solutions nameservers. Day 3: Once DNS propagation is complete, test live site. Configure client settings. (Outlook, Mac Mail, Thunderbird) Once everything is complete you can cancel your old service. Step 2: Back up your website! Create a folder on your Desktop called Website Backup. Simply right-click anywhere on your desktop and choose New -> Folder. Once you have created your Website backup folder, now you can use an FTP Program such as the free FileZilla to download your current site from your previous hosting provider to your Website Backup file on your computer s hard drive. Using FileZilla To connect to an FTP server, enter the address of your previous hosting provider s server into the host field of the Quickconnect bar (e.g. example.com - see image below).

4 Once you have successfully connected, a list of your website files and directories/folders appear on the right side of the main window. The name of the current remote directory is listed in the Remote Site field on the top. The left side shows all the files/folders on your computer. Transferring files To download your site to your Website Backup file on your computer, simply select all the files and folders on the right side inside your public or public_html directory and drag them to the left side to your Website Backup folder on your Desktop as displayed in the image below.

5 Step 3: Sign up for your AT&T Website Solutions hosting account If you have not already done so, purchase your new hosting account with Website Solutions. DO NOT cancel your hosting account at your current host until you have tested and made sure that everything is moved to your AT&T Website Solutions account. If you have your new hosting account with Website Solutions, DO NOT cancel your hosting account at your current host until you have tested and made sure that everything is moved to your AT&T Website Solutions account. In both cases, you will have two hosting accounts working concurrently for a short time and this ensures the least amount of downtime. Once you have created your new hosting account, make sure to get all of the relevant information you need to setup your website. Upon signing up, you will receive detailed setup instructions via with all the pertinent information.

6 The following are the most important pieces of information you need: Logins for FTP and control panel. You receive this information in your Welcome that we send to you after your order is complete. It says Welcome in the Subject line. If you do not have this information or receive your , then contact our customer support team at or by ing and we can have the information resent. Instructions on how to create/setup accounts. Please click here for help in setting up your or refer to the Managing guide. The name of your homepage. Additional information is below on how to name your homepage. Nameserver/DNS information. Keep this information on-hand. AT&T Website Solutions nameservers are as follows: 1st nameserver: ns1.att-websites.com 2nd nameserver: ns2.att-websites.com Step 4: Uploading your website content Once your new hosting account is created and you have the necessary uploading instructions, you can now upload your website content to your AT&T Website Solutions account and make sure that all relevant files are uploaded into the Public directory and that home page is named index. We suggest using FTP to upload your files. To configure your FTP client, please use the following information: Host Name / Address: yourdomain.com User Name: yourdomain.com Password: your password Using as the Host Name will ensure that you can upload your website before your domain name s DNS propagates to our name servers. This allows you to preview your website s content before changing your nameservers. ***Please note that once DNS propagation is completed, your domain name will have to be used as the Host Name. You can upload your website by using the File Manager Pro application found in your control panel. With File Manager Pro you can select each file to upload them. Simply click on Upload then Browse. You ll then be able to select the files from your computer to upload.

7 You can also repeat step 2 of transferring your files in reverse order with an FTP client such as FileZilla, once you have connected to AT&T Website Solutions servers, simply select all your website files in the left window and drag them to the public directory in the right window. Once connected, you will see the following directories: logs cgi-bin private public Any files (other than CGI scripts) that are to be viewed by the public should be placed in the "public" directory (or a subdirectory of "public"). CGI scripts must be placed in the "cgi-bin" directory. The first page, (your homepage), should be named either "index.htm", "index.html", "index.shtml", "index.phtml", "index.php", "index.wml", or "index.php3". The server will return the first index file it finds, regardless of any other files you have. Therefore, it is best to keep only one index file in your public directory to avoid confusion. Subsequent pages may be named whatever you wish, but the homepage must be named this way.

8 If you want your home page to be titled differently from the above names, we recommend that you use the DirectoryIndex command in an.htaccess file. Alternatively, you can use a redirection script. htaccess Redirect: DirectoryIndex filename.html JavaScript Redirection script: <head> <script language="javascript"> //redirect to default.htm function gonow() { location.href="default.htm" } </script> </head> <body bgcolor=#ffffff text=# onload="gonow()"> Meta tag Redirection script: <head> <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url= </head> <body> Publishing your website with Microsoft FrontPage If you are using Microsoft FrontPage for your website, make sure that you have activated the FrontPage extensions before publishing your site. This can be done by logging into the control panel and accessing the FrontPage Manager application. In FrontPage, from the "File" menu choose the "Publish Web" option. You will be prompted to provide a URL to publish your website files to. After specifying the address to publish to (in the form of "yourdomain.com"), you have the choice of publishing the entire website, or just the pages that have been changed. If you are publishing for the first time, choose "Publish all pages." Important notes:

9 Publish your site using FrontPage's "Publish Web" function. Your publishing address is your domain name (in the form of "yourdomain.com"). FrontPage extensions disable regular FTP access along with the following applications: Ad Manager, Business Card, Plug-in Scripts, File Manager, Database Manager and Website Security. Once your website is published, use a browser and check to make sure all your changes occurred. If they haven't, try refreshing your browser and clearing the Temporary Internet Files (cache) before making further changes to your site. In Internet Explorer, this is done by going to "Tools," "Internet Options." On the General tab under "Temporary Internet Files" click "Delete Files." Step 5: Testing and previewing your website After moving your files, your website is ready to test and preview using the preview URL to make sure that everything works seamlessly. This way you can identify and troubleshoot any configuration differences between hosts. To preview your site before changing nameservers simply go to the following URL: previewc45.carrierzone.com Step 6: Create your accounts Log into your Website Solutions control panel and create all the same accounts that you currently use. Once you have logged into the control panel, click EasyMail Setup and click on Create a new account and follow the steps to configure your accounts. We recommend keeping the passwords the same to minimize any client settings changes if your company uses programs such as Outlook to send and receive . From the EasyMail Setup application you can also setup Auto responders, Spam Filtering, Aliases and Forwarding options. Step 7: Change your Nameservers Once you have tested your website and are pleased with the results, contact your domain registrar or log into their domain management system to change the nameservers from your old host to AT&T Website Solutions. In their domain management system, look for the DNS or Nameservers option and replace the current nameservers with the following: 1st nameserver: ns1.att-websites.com 2nd nameserver: ns2.att-websites.com

10 Most registrars will then ask you to confirm the changes via an sent to the administrative contact for the domain. It is very important that this address is always kept up-to-date to avoid any potential disruptions in service. Any modifications to domain names generally take between hours to process. This process is called DNS propagation, which is the amount of time it takes nameservers around the world to update their DNS tables to see your new domain s settings. To view the status of your domain name, simply do a simple whois lookup. This can be done by going to the following URL: Your DNS propagation is completed when the ns1 and ns2 services read as they do in circled area within the image below: Step 8: Test your live website Once you have confirmed that DNS propagation is complete through a whois lookup, we recommend that you test your website again to ensure that your website is up and running appropriately. If you have any concerns do not hesitate to contact our technical support team. They are available to you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can contact them toll free at or by ing support@websites.attmail.com.

11 Step 9: Configure your client The last step in changing hosts is to change your client settings to reflect your new settings (please refer to Managing guide). Below is an example for Microsoft Outlook. Use these settings to configure Microsoft Outlook to check your . Remember to replace "username" with your actual username, and replace "yourdomain.com" with your actual domain name. Mail Account (can be any label): Address: Reply Address: Outgoing Mail (SMTP) Server: mail.yourdomain.com Incoming Mail (POP/IMAP) Server: mail.yourdomain.com Logon using Account Name: username.yourdomain.com These 9 steps will assist you in moving from your current hosting provider to AT&T Website Solutions. Once all 9 steps have been successfully completed and your website and are working properly, then and only then would you cancel your old hosting service. Remember, it is critical that you keep both your old and new hosting accounts running concurrently during your website account move to AT&T Website Solutions as you will need to check your from both hosts. Some ISP s and hosting providers will direct to your old host, while others will begin sending to your new host earlier as a result of propagation times. Canceling before the steps are followed can result in unwanted downtime for both your website and s.