Transfer your hosting to us
From DreamHost
Transferring your site to us is a simple process. This tutorial will explain the steps that you will need to do to transfer your website to us. Your site is made up of 2 services, one is called the "Registration," which is your website name, and the other is your "Hosting" (this is sometimes called your domain). This is the space that you upload your files to. These are the scenarios that we will explain how to transfer your site over to us.
Domain Transfer Checklist
Please Note that whenever you want to transfer your Registration, it must have the following or it will fail:
- unlock your registration (you can check if your registration is locked here: http://www.internic.net/whois.html)
- update your e-mail address on your whois information.
- have any privacy protection turned off.
- your registration has not been renewed or purchased within the last 60 days.
- it has a valid Auth code (epp code) that is provided by the current registrar.
These tutorials will assume that you have taken the required steps on getting the registration ready for transferring and are also explained in the order to have as little downtime as possible.
Transferring your site
I have my Registration and Hosting at the same company and just want to sign up for a new account
Go ahead and sign up for any DreamHost plan; when you come to the sign-up page you will see a section called "Please configure your first hosted domain now". Check the circle that says that you own the name and would like to transfer it to us.
Finish the sign-up process and the request to transfer the registration will be sent (it takes about a day for this to be sent out) and you should get an e-mail from us with the information on how to access your FTP account.
Back up all of your website files, databases, and emails from your old host via FTP or wget.
Then, log in to your DreamHost FTP account using your server's name (servername.dreamhost.com) which should now be set up with your Domain (Hosting) and you will then need to upload the website files to us.
Once your website has been uploaded, you can go back to your "old host" and modify the nameservers for your domain registration to point to us using this.
- ns1.dreamhost.com
ns2.dreamhost.com
ns3.dreamhost.com
Modifying your domain's nameservers takes about 1-3 days to propagate across the entire Internet (compared to Registration, which takes about 7-14 days.)
Once this is complete, your new name servers will direct visitors to your account here with DreamHost.
So, back to your Registration Transfer to us: about 1-2 days after signing up with us, you should receive an Approval e-mail which asks if it is OK to transfer the registration to to us. All you need to do is click on the link in that e-mail to approve it and the transfer will start. If you have not received the Approval e-mail,
contact Support to find out what has happened. But again, if you have approved the the transfer, set back and enjoy your new hosting environment as the transfer is on its way here and should take about 7-14 days to come through.
Once the Registration has been transferred you can go ahead and go back to your old hosting company and cancel the hosting plan with them.
I have my Registration and Hosting at the same company but want to set up the site here before I transfer it
To avoid any downtime, simply follow these instructions and you should be fine:
First, you will need to sign up for a DreamHost plan. Any will do. Then, in the sign-up form you will need to select the option that says that you already own the registration and you only want Hosting from us.
After you sign up you will have a hosting plan set up with a "Domain" set up with no registration pointing to it yet so you can't see it through a browser but you will be able to access it via FTP by using your server name as the host name. (servername.dreamhost.com) If you don't know your server name contact Support.
You will then need to log in to your WebPanel and go to the Domains > Manage Domains section. Then, in the middle of the page (above Domains), click on [+ Add New Domain / Sub-Domain] and create a Free "Dreamhosters.com" sub-domain; which will look something like:
name.dreamhosters.com
This Mirror Domain is a server alias that will allow you to access the content of your DreamHost site before the domain itself has become accessible. Set it to mirror your existing domain that you already have in your account. It will look like this:
Click on the bottom to finish the Mirror Setup. It takes between 30 minutes to 1 hour for the sub-domain to start working. After that, the name.dreamhosters.com that you have created will allow you to view your account in the interim period before the domain becomes available.
Once your website has been uploaded and set up and you're happy with what's here, you can go back to your "Old Host" and change the nameservers for your Registration to point to DreamHost using:
- ns1.dreamhost.com
ns2.dreamhost.com
ns3.dreamhost.com
This will cause people to see your files on our server while the name is being transferred to us. Changing the nameservers takes about 1-3 days to happen, while transferring the whole Registration takes 7-14 days. So now when people go to your site the Registration points them to your account here.
Next, you will make a transfer request to have your Registration moved over to DreamHost. You can make that request by logging in to your WebPanel and going to Domains > Reg. Transfer then entering in the name of your registration. If you have not used up your free registration it will be free, otherwise it will cost $9.95. You should receive an Approval email about 1-3 days after that asking if it is ok to transfer the registration to us. All you need to do is click on the link in the email to approve it and the transfer will start. If you have not received the Approval email contact support to find out what has happened. But again, if you have approved the the transfer, sit back and enjoy your new hosting environment as the transfer is on its way here, and should take about 7-14 days to come through.
Once the Registration has been transferred you can go ahead and go back to your old hosting company and cancel the hosting plan with them and delete the free Dreamhosters.com sub-domain. Remember to fix any links you have going directly to the Dreamhosters.com sub-domain before you delete it.
I have my Registration at one company and my Hosting at another company
This one is pretty simple, all you really have to do is transfer over your Registration and create a new hosting plan here with us. Here is how you should do this type of setup.
- Sign up for any plan and select that you already own the domain and that you want it transferred to us.
This will get the transfer started. You will then need to log in to your WebPanel and you will need to go to the Domains > Manage Domains section of your WebPanel. Then at the bottom of the page you, will click on [Add New Domain / Sub-Domain], and create a Free "Dreamhosters.com" sub-domain, it will look something like:
name.dreamhosters.com
and set it to Mirror your existing Domain that you already have in your account. It will look like this:
Click on the bottom to finish the Mirror Setup and then you just need to wait 30 minutes to 1 hour for the sub-domain to start working. After that the name.dreamhosters.com that you have created will grab the files that are in the directory of the domain that it is mirroring.
Once your website has been uploaded and all set up and you're finally satisfied with what's here at Dreamhost you can go back to your "Old Host" and change the nameservers for your Registration to point to us using this:
- ns1.dreamhost.com
ns2.dreamhost.com
ns3.dreamhost.com
This will allow people to see your files on our server while the name is being transferred to us. Changing the nameservers takes about 1-3 days to happen while transferring the whole Registration takes 7-14 days. So now when people go to your site the Registration points them to your account here.
At this point you can cancel your hosting plan with your old host as they are no longer providing you with any service that you are using.
So back to your Registration Transfer to us. About 1-3 days after signing up you should receive an Approval e-mail which asks if it is OK to transfer the registration to to us. All you need to do is click on the link in the e-mail to approve it and the transfer will start. If you have not received the Approval e-mail, contact support to find out what has happened. But again, if you have approved the the transfer, sit back and enjoy your new hosting environment as the transfer is on its way here and should take about 7-14 days to come through.
Once the Registration has been transferred you can go ahead and go back to your old registrar company and cancel what ever plan you have with them.
You're done.
I have my Registration at another company but my Hosting is here at Dreamhost.com
This is simple. All you have to do is make sure that your registration is unlocked and that your whois information is up to date. Then go to your WebPanel under the Registrations section and select to have the registration transferred to us. If you have not used up your free registration it will be free. $9.95 if you have to pay for it. You should receive an Approval e-mail about 1-3 days after that which asks if it is OK to transfer the registration to us. All you need to do is click on the link in the email to approve it and the transfer will start. If you have not received the Approval e-mail contact support to find out what has happened.
But again, if you have approved the the transfer, sit back and enjoy your new hosting environment as the transfer is on its way here and should take about 7-14 days to come through.
I have my Hosting at another company but my Registration is here at Dreamhost.com
Chances are that if your registration is here and your hosting is at another company you only have a registration plan with us which means that you cannot host any domains on it. If this is true, follow the following Grey text to get your account set up to allow hosting on it. If you do have a hosting plan then you can skip the Grey text and go right to the transferring.
To upgrade your plan to a hosting plan all you need to do is log in to your WebPanel and go to your Billing > Manage Accounts section then click on [add a plan] and just choose any plan that you would like. After you have paid for your new hosting plan you will be ready to go on to the next step.
Go to your WebPanel > Domains > Manage Domains section. Then at the bottom of the page you will need to click on [Add New Domain / Sub-Domain] then you will need to create a domain for your registration. This will give you a place to upload your files to and be a place for your registration to point to (usually people will choose Fully Hosted).
After your account is set up, you will just need to transfer your website files, databases, etc. to your new domain here with us using your servername as the FTP host name. (servername.dreamhost.com) If you don't know your server name contact Support.
After you have transferred over your data to us you can go ahead and close your hosting plan at your old host as you will no longer need their service.
And you're done.
