How to Transfer My Joomla! Website to a New Host?

I've just transferred my Joomla! website (Joomla! 1.0.15) to a new host - hostmonster.com. It provides not only reasonable price but also unlimited hosting space, unlimited site bandwidth, and hosting unlimited domains. That is the main reason I chose hostmonster.com over the other hosts.

Switching between hosts can be easy or difficult depending on how much knowledge you've known about it. I've learned a lot during this hosting-switch processing. If one day for any reason that you decide to switch your current host to a new host, here are the things I want you to pay close attention to:

• Find a new host that meets your needs.
  


• Use FTP to backup your website to you PC (Personal Computer).
  


• Backup (export) your database to your PC using phpMyAdmin from your current host's cPanel. For more details, please find out here: MySQL Tutorial.
  


• Upload your website that you've backed up earlier to your new host's root directory using FTP.
  


• Create a new database using MySQL ® Database Wizard from your new host's cPanel. Video tutorial for creating MySQL database and user in cPanel will show you step-by-step of how to create one.
  


• Upload (import) your database that you've exported earlier to your new host using phpMyAdmin. In my case, I have to change the information about my database or the absolute path before I imported it. For example I have to change my old database mycowut7_joom1 to be new database airlinet_joom1. I also have to change my old database's absolute path home/mycowut7/public_html to be my new database's absolute path home1/airlinet/public_html.
  
  Where mycowut7 and airlinet are my old and new host user names respectively.
  


• Download configuration.php (it should be in your root directory) to your PC, edit the following lines, and then upload it back to your root directory:
  
  $mosConfig_absolute_path = '/home/hostlogin/public_html/';
  $mosConfig_cachepath = '/home/hostlogin/public_html/cache';
  $mosConfig_db = 'hostlogin_joom1';
  $mosConfig_password = 'passwordfordb';
  $mosConfig_smtphost = 'localhost';
  $mosConfig_user = 'hostlogin_joom1';
  
  where you have to change hostlogin to be your new host's user name, joom1 to be your database name, passwordfordb to be your database password. In my case I even have to change home to be home1. You can also find out your absolute path in your new host's cPanel.
  


• Point your domain to your new host's name servers from you current host. If you can't do it yourself, you may ask your current host to have that done for you. Remember that DNS (Domain Name System) changes will take 24 to 48 hours to be updated due to DNS' propagation. You also need to know EPP Code (Extensible Provisioning Protocol Code) to transfer your domain to your new host. You can obtain it from your current host's cPanel. If not ask your current host to send you one via email.
  
  where name servers should look like these: ns1.hostname.com and ns2.hostname.com or dns1.hostname.com and dns2.hostname.com depends on which host you are using. You can find out these name servers from your new host's cPanel.
  

If you have any questions, feel free to leave your comments here.

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