Transferring Client's Hosting To Tch

[sigmadog]

I have a client who is very unhappy with her current hosting and wants to switch. I told her how much I enjoy TCH, having been a customer for over 7 years, and she's all for it. I've read a couple previous posts (all from 5 or more years ago) about switching hosting and am just posting this to make sure the procedure's haven't changed.

 

As far as I can tell the process should go something like this:

 

1. The client will contact TCH, setting up a new account and purchasing a hosting plan

2. TCH will send my client a "Welcome" email with, among other things, a DNS for the new site location

3. During the period of time before my client switches the DNS to the new location, using her login information (with her permission, of course), I will be able to muck around and setup her new site files (I'm planning on a Wordpress install) without the site being visible to the general public (i.e. those searching for her URL).

4.Email accounts will be established on the new site prior to DNS switching to minimize email downtime during the re-directing period.

5. When I am finished with developing the site, the DNS will be changed, and the old hosting account can be cancelled after 24 hours, or once URLs are re-directed to the new site.

6. Everyone lives happily ever after (except, perhaps, the former web host).

 

Is this scenario about right? Anything I'm forgetting?

 

 

[TCH-Dick]

That sounds correct and is a good plan, but here are a couple things to consider.

 

_ If the current site is using a host with cPanel, we can then take backup and restore here. This will bring everything over and just require a DNS change to get the site resolving to our server.

 

_ If you prefer to do the redesign first, especially with WordPress you should be aware if a couple issues with access over IP.:

__ Any rewrites needed for htaccess will not work until the domain resolves.

__ For WordPress you would need to set the site URL to the IPaddress~uesername that we provide for temporary access. Then after changing the DNS you would edit the WordPress settings to use the domain name. If posting content while using the IPaddress~uesername, you would need to edit the database to change any URL references in the content, which is something we can do for you.

 

I hope this helps and please let us know if you have any other questions.

[sigmadog]

Thanks!

 

I didn't know about the IP address issue. I'll remember that when making the switch.

 

As for the htaccess issue, do you mean any rewrites of the htaccess file itself, or something else entirely? I confess that I am quite ignorant when it comes to htaccess stuff.

 

I appreciate the quick responses!

[TCH-Bruce]

Before DNS changes rewrites for WordPress won't work (URL's for post titles, etc).

[sigmadog]

Aah! Thanks, Bruce.

 

Knowing that will prevent a lot of head-scratching later. I will conduct myself accordingly.

 

Thanks again to you and Dick for the help.