Hi TCH!
I am acting as web administrator for the web site for my daughter's USAV volleyball club. I designed a new site for them earlier this fall, and it is live on their current host.
Pearland Juniors
Currently the site is purely static, and not very large. We run a few email addresses through it. Though as the season progresses, I expect to add photos from tournaments. And at some point, we might want to implement forms for collecting registration information and the like... I would expect we can make do with the Starter Plan.
The current host is a friend with a setup he runs from his home, and we've had a few problems. So we're looking to go with a professional outfit. TCH has gotten excellent reviews from folks I trust on the dealmac.com forum. And I am very impressed with the level of communication and documentation that I see. And it certainly fits the budget. So this is my first choice.
I know enought to build the site, but I'm not up to speed with managing and changing hosting. My director is the registrant, and knows virtually nothing about computers, so I will act as her agent. I know the first thing I'll need is the current domain name registration information.
I did a Whois on our domain name and got the following:
Registration Service Provider:
Domain Direct, help@domaindirect.com
1-416-531-2084
http://www.domaindirect.com
This company may be contacted for domain login/passwords,
DNS/Nameserver changes, and general domain support questions.
Registrar of Record: TUCOWS, INC.
Record last updated on 19-Apr-2004.
Record expires on 16-Apr-2006.
Record created on 16-Apr-2002.
Domain servers in listed order:
NS15.ZONEEDIT.COM 69.10.134.195
NS18.ZONEEDIT.COM 65.125.227.35
I know I'll need to get the domaindirect account name and password from my Director to make changes there, and I'm working on that. But what I'd really like to have is a step-by-step guide on how to get converted over.
I think I establish an account with you guys. Does my director need to do this to set up credit card info or some such? Can she do this but still assign me and my email address as your contact?
I think the next step that once we have an account is that we get an email from you guys with loads of information. What is included? Then do I simply FTP the site from my Mac to the TCH server (I use Dreamweaver...)? Am I correct that during this time, I would address the site at TCH with a raw IP address? I'd also want to get email up, running and tested so that I can convert that over on the TCH go-live date as well. How do we handle moving an existing email address at our domain over to your mail server? During the transition, how do we keep from losing any email? We really cannot have a dropped email, as it could be important tournament info, and this worries me. How is this managed? Do we set up some kind of mail forwarding on TCH to the old host, and let it resend the email to us until we are certain that propegation has completed? Can we do this later on with our email addresses so that email to our host is redirected to an address that we use more often (like my earthlink email account)?
I think then at some point, I contact domaindirect and tell them that I have new domain server info for them. They change the pointers to TCH. Now, here I'm confused again. While this propegates, some folks will get directed to TCH and some to the current host, correct? Just depending on which host their DNS is pointing to as the new stuff propegates? When do I know it's OK to contact the current host and say Buh-Bye?
Am I missing any other steps?
I know once we are up and running, we'll have a lot of questions about hit counters and cpanel stuff... And setting up more email. I can also see at some point maybe setting up subdomains for each team.
Anyway, I hope this massive tome is digestible. I'm looking forward to moving over the TCH and to learning how to do it efficiently and effectively.
Thanks for your help, ---Steve
