What would you recommend?

I've actually got a bunch of questions I couldn't get answers to around the site. Sorry if the information is out there, I just didn't see it.

Alright, the first thing I'm wondering is how to transfer all my stuff. Right now I'm kinda spread out between providers (which makes renewals a major headache). I've got 1 domain registered somewhere, and I've got another domain plus the hosting for both domains registered another place. I'd like to transfer all of those to one hosting company so that I can manage my domains AND hosting with one login. Can I transfer that all to DreamHost? Also, do I need to download all of the stuff from my current host and FTP it to my new hosting when I get a DreamHost account? I don't really wanna use the backup/restore option through cpanel because I don't want a lot of the garbage on there... but still it's a matter of gigs on what needs to be transfered.

I'm sure that this is included in the answer to the question above, but what about email? I have a ton of email stocked up on my current host and I need to know if that will transfer or will need to be backed up.

The next question I have is about your disk usage/bandwidth. On the site it says that it's increased every week... if I never use it and just let it mount up what happens? Is there a cap on how high it can go? What about if I use my entire bandwidth in a week, would I have to buy more or wait for the next week to go by? Does it reset to a default every month or is it I just get X amount at the start and it depends on how much I use from there out?

Is MySQL the only available database? I'm wanting to learn PostgreSQL so I'm curious if it's an option.

I guess what I'm really trying to figure out is what would you recommend to make a transition to a new host a smooth as possible. I'd like downtime to be a day or less. Thanks@!

In reply to:
I've actually got a bunch of questions I couldn't get answers to around the site. Sorry if the information is out there, I just didn't see it.

Remember that we're all just customers here. We'll try to answer as many questions as we can and also indicate which things you might have to ask a real DreamHost pre-sales support person.

In reply to:
Alright, the first thing I'm wondering is how to transfer all my stuff. Right now I'm kinda spread out between providers (which makes renewals a major headache). I've got 1 domain registered somewhere, and I've got another domain plus the hosting for both domains registered another place. I'd like to transfer all of those to one hosting company so that I can manage my domains AND hosting with one login. Can I transfer that all to DreamHost?

You *can* copy over anything, but there are some things that are more complicated to copy over than others. Static html is easy, as are any configuration files. You'd need to take database dumps and restores for any application data you're storing in MySQL. What kind of web applications are you running or are your sites all html?

In reply to:
Also, do I need to download all of the stuff from my current host and FTP it to my new hosting when I get a DreamHost account? I don't really wanna use the backup/restore option through cpanel because I don't want a lot of the garbage on there... but still it's a matter of gigs on what needs to be transfered.

You should be able to either wget stuff or possibly tar it up on the old server and ftp it directly to your DreamHost server.

In reply to:
I'm sure that this is included in the answer to the question above, but what about email? I have a ton of email stocked up on my current host and I need to know if that will transfer or will need to be backed up.

I don't know of a direct transfer or "backup and restore" method for email. I've downloaded it via pop or imap and then re-uploaded it to a new account using IMAP.

In reply to:
The next question I have is about your disk usage/bandwidth. On the site it says that it's increased every week... if I never use it and just let it mount up what happens? Is there a cap on how high it can go? What about if I use my entire bandwidth in a week, would I have to buy more or wait for the next week to go by? Does it reset to a default every month or is it I just get X amount at the start and it depends on how much I use from there out?

Because of the nature of the beast its different between disk and bandwidth. Your disk limit simply increases over time. Your monthly bandwidth limit increases over time as well, but it's not like you get credit for unused bandwidth. Like cellphone minutes, unused bandwidth expires at the end of your hosting month.

In reply to:
Is MySQL the only available database? I'm wanting to learn PostgreSQL so I'm curious if it's an option.

As for as I know, MySQL is the only option.

In reply to:
I guess what I'm really trying to figure out is what would you recommend to make a transition to a new host a smooth as possible. I'd like downtime to be a day or less. Thanks@!

You should be able to copy your stuff to DreamHost and then initiate a switchover one site at a time. You should also be able to test things out before switching the DNS, so your downtime for any particular site would be minimal.

Caution.
I'm in Thailand
My web was deleted.
without any discuss.
The reason is my web is high traffic.

Please see my inbox e-mail below from technical support.
Hello,

Unfortunately we had to turn off the xxxxx.net web service because it
is
under a large surge of traffic, the surge is crashing the server,
If this is actual traffic that you where expecting it appears that you
may need to upgrade to our Strictly Business Enhanced plan as a shared
server plan can not accommodate these traffic loads without effecting
other customers on the same server.
you can view info on our Semi-dedicated plans here
http://www.dreamhost.com/hosting-dedicated.html if you are interested
in
going this route let us know so we can check to see if there are any
available for your cluster
You can view the IPs making connections to your site by following these
instructions http://wiki.dreamhost.com/Finding_Causes_of_Heavy_Usage

Hello sdustinh,

I understand your worry. It sounds like a huge operations to transfer all this data, but don't worry, with organization and discipline everything will be alright

You can transfer everything to dreamhost, and to do so efficiently, log on your current-host panel if you registered the domain name through your host, and then search for "Name Server", as soon as you open your account with dreamhost, they will communicate you your new "Name Server". Also a good options for you to have your ideas more clear: go on www.whois.net, type your domain name, then write down the informations where its says "Name Server".

You do need to retrieve all your data from your current host if you don't have a local copy (I doubt it).

Do you have -additionally to your files-, any database on your current host server? If so, you will also have to back it up. Just click on Export in PhpMyAdmin to save the db data.

Also the usage/bandwidth, I doubt that you will be in a situation you are going to use all of that in a week.

If you have any others questions, please do not hesitate.

Hope this help,

Get $55 discount: use this code DHDISCOUNT55 when you sign up with Dreamhost for one year.

Yeah, that helps a lot. I have backups of everything on my hd, i just wasn't sure if there was some sort of automated way that hosts transfer the contents of my account to the other. The more I thought about it, the more I think I'd like to just transfer it all on my own rather than move everything I have over. I have a lot of garbage I haven't gotten around to cleaning. :-

I did have another couple of questions though. I've read some online reviews about DH and it seems to be a pretty common complaint about the downtime. I get the impression that it can be anywhere from just a few minutes to an hour or so. I'm not too concerned with a few minutes every now and then (though I'd prefer no downtime at all), but it seems to be pretty common even among people that recommend DH.

If I transfer my domain to DH, does that mean that I will be able to login to you guys CP and manage my domains? I don't want to deal with these old companies anymore, I just want one place to have my domains managed.

Alright, and just so I understand this bandwidth completely... say I get 10GB to start with 1GB every week after that. That would mean if I didn't use any, by the end of the month I'd have 14GB of bandwidth which would be reset back to 10GB at the beginning of the month and climb 1GB a week after that?

In reply to:
If I transfer my domain to DH, does that mean that I will be able to login to you guys CP and manage my domains? I don't want to deal with these old companies anymore, I just want one place to have my domains managed.

You can do a domain transfer of all domains that DreamHost is allowed to register - .com, .net, .org, .info. DreamHost does require that you renew the domain for a year when you do a transfer, so that's money out of your pocket (though you do get an extra year of registration out of the deal). The only way out of this is to use a promo code that gives you free extra domain registrations. You'll be able to use those free ones for the transfers.

In reply to:
Alright, and just so I understand this bandwidth completely... say I get 10GB to start with 1GB every week after that. That would mean if I didn't use any, by the end of the month I'd have 14GB of bandwidth which would be reset back to 10GB at the beginning of the month and climb 1GB a week after that?

Well, on the lowest plan, you'd start with 2TB of bandwidth. The weekly increases really only become significant after a year or so. For a level 1 plan, it's only 16GB a week extra or 832GB increase every year. In other words, in the first month of a level 1 plan, your bandwidth limit would be 2TB for that month. The second month it would be 2.064TB, etc.