How much time will it take to move from one hosting server to another

[rashidfarooq]

I want to change my Web hosting company. Any One can brief that If I choose some other company to host my site there, will my site be closed for some time, and if yes then for how much time my site will be closed / shut downed? And Is there any way to reduce / avoid this shutdown timing?

[Sprinkler Buddy]

I have done this, keep your current server running until you start seeing your site appear with the new server. Then you'll have no down time.

[ourscompany]

I agree with Sprinkler beside this choose time when traffic is less at your site ( like night or in weekend) so that no one come to know.. just a preventive method if any problem occurs you can manage effectively.

[RedScooter]

Sign up with a hosting company that lets you upload all your files and set up all your databases even before your domain nameservers have changed over. That way, you'll have a copy on the old host plus a copy on the new host. Then when you change your nameservers, you are minimizing downtime. But - there is always a small chance you will have issues for a day or so while the change takes effect. Some internet providers take a day or two to copy over the new nameservers so they may still be looking at the old website while other providers are looking at the new one. So if you have dynamic content - say for example people place orders on your website, and your website saves a copy of orders - you could have a day or two with orders on both websites, and need to copy that info from your old site to the new one.

But, it can be done and sometimes it's necessary. I recently switched myself and I was lucky enough not to have any downtime. If you happen to switch to a web host that is physically close to your existing one this often minimizes the amount of time it takes to finalize the switch.

[fredbaughix]

It takes 6-8 hrs of transfer, but that depends on your hosting site.

[CacheMySite.com]

I've moved sites between companies and it's taken ~2 hrs or less for propagation.

[aetdinger]

depending on the size if you do it your self it can take a while, most host providers offer the service of transferring your files for you for free. I know hostgator, godaddy offers this service.

0 down time just make sure you transfer all files check them in the new server before you change the name servers on the domain. (instant no down time.)

have fun

[simplyamazing12]

It really depends on how much content you have. cPanel's backup requires downloading the content then you need to reupload it. The time will definitely depend on how much you have. 500MB of content will obviously take less than 20GB of content.

Also, keep in mind the domain DNS propagation times (24-48 hours).

[thewebhostingdir]

If you want to avoid propagation time, change the A record and MX record on your existing host and point them to the new hosting company. Your site and emails will immediately start resolving from the new IP address.

[alemcherry]

DNS propagation time will be few hours, you can even minimize this by leaving the old site running. But please understand that if you have a dynamic site, this will mean that you will lose some data which is entered by users accessing old server, after you have set up the site on new server.

[chad1988]

Leave your website running on the old server while migrating your site to the new host. Then switch the name servers to the new host's name servers.

Give it a few days to totally propagate. You can also flush your dns cache on your computer by going into cmd prompt and type in ipconfig/flushdns

This will clear your dns cache.

Chad

[Branco]

it depends on the content server

[JFSG]

Migration can be done with little to no downtime in most cases. Just make sure the old server isn't shut down during the process of migration.