Many people on this forum don't like YouHosting because their own site is down a lot or shows errors. However, many people don't know how to host your own site on a different hosting account or server and some don't even know it's possible! If you are one of those two groups, this tutorial is for you.
Before we start, you should have a better hosting account or server for your site already, with a control panel you know how to use. I don't know where you want to host your site so I will try to keep the instructions as generic as possible.
Step 1: Find your new website IP
The first thing you need to do is find out the IP of your new host. Most control panels show the website IP on the main page, just like this:
Almost all control panels tell you a website IP in an Account Details section as well (but it might be called different) and if you can't find it yourself, ask your new hosting provider. Please note that the server IP and website IP might be different. If you're not sure, ask your new hosting provider.
Step 2: Update the A record
Now we will make your domain point to your new server. To do this, login to your web hosting control panel at YouHosting. After you've navigated to your domain, go to the DNS Zone Editor section. Now you need to update the A record for record source @. This is what it could look like.
After you've entered the IP address, click Update and your site will point to the new server within 48 hours.
Step 3: Move your website
Now you need to move your website from your YouHosting account to your new server. I can't give any specific instructions for this, but I recommend to download your website files to your desktop using an application like FileZilla (don't use file managers) and then reupload them to your new host in the same way. If your website has a database, export and import it using phpMyAdmin (rather than a control panel backup tool). Also, don't forget to update the configuration file of your script with the details of the new database.
What this means:
Before we start, you should have a better hosting account or server for your site already, with a control panel you know how to use. I don't know where you want to host your site so I will try to keep the instructions as generic as possible.
Step 1: Find your new website IP
The first thing you need to do is find out the IP of your new host. Most control panels show the website IP on the main page, just like this:
Almost all control panels tell you a website IP in an Account Details section as well (but it might be called different) and if you can't find it yourself, ask your new hosting provider. Please note that the server IP and website IP might be different. If you're not sure, ask your new hosting provider.
Step 2: Update the A record
Now we will make your domain point to your new server. To do this, login to your web hosting control panel at YouHosting. After you've navigated to your domain, go to the DNS Zone Editor section. Now you need to update the A record for record source @. This is what it could look like.
After you've entered the IP address, click Update and your site will point to the new server within 48 hours.
Step 3: Move your website
Now you need to move your website from your YouHosting account to your new server. I can't give any specific instructions for this, but I recommend to download your website files to your desktop using an application like FileZilla (don't use file managers) and then reupload them to your new host in the same way. If your website has a database, export and import it using phpMyAdmin (rather than a control panel backup tool). Also, don't forget to update the configuration file of your script with the details of the new database.
What this means:
- Your main site (yoursite.com and www.yoursite.com) is hosted on the new server. This means no more CPU limit exceeded errors or account account unavailable messages.
- If you want to connect to the FTP of your new host, use yourdomain.com or the IP of your new host. Due to limitations of YouHosting's DNS Zone Editor, ftp.yourdomain.com still points to your YouHosting account.
- All subdomains of your account still resolve to their old addresses. This means that cpanel.yourdomain.com and client.yourdomain.com still work like nothing happened.
- Email is still hosted by YouHosting or whatever email provider you were using before. We don't change MX records in this tutorial so nothing changes for your email.
- Your nameservers are still pointed to YouHosting. Any other changes to DNS records you need to make are done at YouHosting