Moving Between Hosting Accounts

You'll need a copy of your website's files to work both as a backup and a copy of your site to upload to your new hosting account. If you still have the most recent version of your site's files saved to your hard drive, you can skip this step and purchase a new hosting plan.

To Back Up and Save Your Site's Files

1. Log in to your HostingDude.com account.
2. Click Web Hosting.
3. Next to the hosting account you want to use, click Manage.
4. From the Tools section, click FTP File Manager.
5. Select all of your site's files.

   Note: You can only archive up to 20MB of data, but you might create multiple archives.

6. Click the Archive icon in the action bar.
7. Complete the on-screen instructions, and then click OK:

   Select Destination:

   Enter the name of a new or existing destination folder or click Browse to navigate to an existing directory into which you want to archive the selected items.

   Archive Name:

   Enter a name for this archive file.

   Archive Type:

   Select the archive type.
   Zip (.zip) - This is used for Windows or Linux hosting accounts.
   Tar GZip (tar.gz) - This is used for Linux hosting accounts.

   Password (optional):

   This field is only available for Zip archive compression and offers the option of password protecting your compressed archive file.

   Overwrite existing file:

   Select this option to overwrite any archived files or directories with the same name as those your are archiving within the selected destination directory.

8. Select your ZIP backup file, click Download, and then save the file to your computer.

Once you have the ZIP backup your site's files, contact customer support to purchase a hosting account that supports what you need.

Because you can't have two hosting plans using the same domain name, you need to cancel your old hosting account before you can set up your new one.

Once your hosting account is canceled, your site is inaccessible. Generally, you must wait an hour to set up your new hosting account, although it might take up to 24 hours.

To Cancel Your Old Hosting

1. Log in to your HostingDude.com account.
2. Click Web Hosting.
3. Click on the name of the hosting account you want to cancel.
4. Click Cancel this account.
5. Click Cancel Account.

Once you've canceled your old hosting account, you can set up your new hosting within 24 hours.

To Set up Your Hosting Account

1. Log in to your HostingDude.com account.
2. Click Web Hosting.
3. Next to the hosting account you want to use, click Manage.
4. Complete the following fields, and then click Finish:
   • Enter domain — Enter the domain name you want to use.
   • FTP user name — Use the automatically generated user name, or click Change, and then enter the FTP user name you want to use.
   • Password & Confirm password — Enter the password you want to use to access your hosting account with FTP and to log in to the Hosting Control Panel directly.
   • (Optional) SSL credits — If you have SSL credits in the same account as the domain name you want to use, select the SSL credit you want to use with this hosting account.

The estimated wait time for your hosting account to become accessible displays. Once your hosting account is ready to use, we send you an email message containing all of your basic account-management information.

After your new hosting plan is set up, upload the backup of your files. If you did not create a ZIP backup earlier, see FTP: Upload my files to cPanel hosting. Otherwise, follow these instructions.

Note: Multiple file uploading requires Adobe Flash® Player 9. We also recommend using the latest version of your browser. Multiple file upload functionality is not compatible with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard or later versions.

To Upload Your Site's Back Up

1. Log in to your HostingDude.com account.
2. Click Web Hosting.
3. Next to the hosting account you want to use, click Manage.
4. From the Tools section, click FTP File Manager.
5. Select html using the directory tree.
6. In the menu bar, click Upload.
7. Click Browse , and then select the ZIP backup file from your computer. If your ZIP backup file is larger than 8MB, see Upload files.
8. Click Upload.
9. Select your ZIP backup file, and then click the Unarchive icon in the action bar.
10. Select the following options:

    Select Destination

    To unarchive your site properly, ensure the destination field only contains a forward-slash ("/").

    Overwrite existing file

    Select this option to overwrite any file with the same name.

11. Click OK.

For your site to be accessible, your domain name's DNS settings might need to be modified.

• If your domain name and hosting are in the same account, updates happen automatically.
• If your domain is registered elsewhere, see Change nameservers for my domains to obtain your domain's correct nameservers.
• If your domain is registered with us, but in another account, see What is my website's IP address? and then update your domain name's A record using your IP address.
  
  

  To Update Your A Record

1. Log in to your Account Manager.
2. Next to Domains, click Manage.
3. Go to the Zone File Editor for the domain name you want to update.
4. In the A (Host) section, click the A record you want to edit.
5. From your A (Host) group, locate the "@" host, and then click Edit in the Actions column.
6. Complete the following:

   Host Name

   Do not modify this field. It should remain "@."

   Points to IP Address

   Enter your new IP address.

   TTL

   Do not modify this field. It should remain at its default.

7. Click Save Zone File, and then click OK.