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Your visitors won’t notice site transfer to new server if there is a zero downtime.

It is recommended to begin transfer with files upload.

Upload files via FTP to the directory public_html (you will need server IP address, login and password). If you don’t know which FTP client to choose you can try free Filezilla: http://filezilla-project.org

It is also possible to upload files using control panel. You can upload either individual files or entire website packed in zip archive.

After files upload you should backup database and restore bases at new server. There are a few steps:

• Create database dump at source server. Database dump is a text file that has .sql extension. It is useful if backup file is archived (tar.gz or .tgz  extension)
• Create empty database and database user at new server
• Use “Backup” option  in cpanel to upload and restore database dump. If size of a dump file exceeds 100 Mb there might be problems with DB restoration. Contact your hosting provider in such case.

Note:  It might happen that databases and database users would get different prefix because of different account name  in cPanel. It is recommended to check DB connection string in your applications’ configuration and change it accordingly.

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cPanel has its own method for checking services availability. Official documentation provides detailed description.

If you aren’t satisfied with the method above, there is still a way to check availability of any service using your PC.

WEB service

Web service is responsible for displaying your site. If your site isn’t displayed it’s possible that this service is down. Web service uses port 80 by default. The best way to check is to connect to port 80 using your computer. You can connect to port 80 using standard command line utility named “telnet”

Example:

telnet domain.com 80

Utility will connect successfully if service is running. There won’t be any text message because web server will wait for your command. You can type GET / and press “Enter” on the keyboard for further check. Server will reply with the HTML code of website’s page set as main by default.

FTP service

FTP service is used to download, upload and manage files and folders at your server. FTP service uses port 21 by default. You can check port 21 using standard telnet utility. FTP server replies with it’s “welcome” banner if it’s operational.You can also use ftp utility that is included with your OS.

Example:

ftp domain.com

If service is available, you will see reply message with number 220 in it and login prompt

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If there is no index file in the directory its content (file list) is displayed in browser. If you don’t want your directory to be viewable there is a possibility to forbid access to it.

The simple method is to place an empty index.html file to directory. This way you will forbid access to one particular directory.

Another solution is to use .htaccess file. You can forbid directory listing by inserting following text in .htaccess:

Options -Indexes

.htaccess file has an effect on directory and all sub-directories. This way you can restrict access to all folders without index file within your account. If there is no .htaccess file it is recommended to create it.

If you want to set new password you can log in to your cpanel account and choose the option “change password”

It is not recommended to use simple passwords (less than 8 symbols). For protective purposes it is better to use uppercase and lowercase characters, as well as numbers and non-numeric symbols. Complex combinations prevent password hacking with bruteforce.

Important:

Cpanel account and FTP lofgin share same password. If you set new cpanel password then FTP password will also change.