Website Transfers are a small but time-consuming and potentially complicated part of our business and normally if you have a standard CMS website with database and code the transfer is quick, easy and you dont even know its happened, Sometimes there is corruption in the files (website code) or database and it involves a lot of time and effort for ourselves and your old / previous website design company. The info below gives an idea of how it can go wrong and what is normally involved.
[Website Owners] Following on from your recent email we have decided to move the web site to Delicious Webdesign after they were recommended to us by lots of our friends. As you can see below they have requested the following information. Would you please supply the details requested. Via this email I would ask Delicious Webdesign to let you know the date the transfer will occur.
Can you please forward an invoice to cover any outstanding amounts we may owe you so we can clear this item. With reference to the social media marketing we will be back in contact when he returns to the office so that stays at normal for the time being. We wish you every success in your new ventures and thank you for all your support in the past.
[Website Designers] Ref website transfer as .eu domains are new to us I found out this (they are slightly unique but nothing to worry about) To transfer a .eu away from your host we need to put in a transfer order. Once the procedure has been started, EURid will send a confirmation request to the owner’s email address stored in the WHOIS. The assignee will have to give consent within 14 days by following the instructions contained in the email. To enable transfer:
1 We need registration details including full name / company / address / email / phone details to start this.
2 Need email addresses / passwords
3 Need ftp access (for website code) from previously website design company
4 Need Database export from previously website design company
5 Need your email account names
Don’t think the .com / .co.uk domains were mentioned previously and the .eu is not mentioned below as its in ‘limbo’ so can I assume you don’t want the .co.uk and .com domains but want to wait until the .eu is ready to transfer?
[Old Website Design Company] I’ll help your new website design company – Delicious Webdesign to get your website up and running. One thing I can see he did not think of is email addresses/server. Please make sure he understand he would have to take care of this too. Please make sure you keep a copy of all your emails, as your new Web guy might interrupt the service without any previous notice.
[Website Owners] We started with .co.uk and .com before moving to EU. We have given out cards in the past with .co.uk and com and the other website design comapany diverted them all to .EU. Anything that we have done in the past we have been guided by the other website design comapany, they appear to be very knowledgeable in this area.. Neither my co director and myself are IT boffins. Following our recent telephone conversation the .eu is something we will have to revisit later. Sorry if there has been a delay in responding but my emails developed a glitch today and we had to sort the problem out.
[Website Designers] Ok so do you want the .co.uk and .com domains still? He made a typo with them below and assume they are the ones stated below, this will obviously cost more to transfer and maintain (standard costs for domains are £90 per year but can easily do this for you) The main domain is the one that needs to be transferred when released but can do the other two now if you give me the ok to proceed.
[Website Owners] I think we should keep them for this year then revisit this topic again next year when the renewal arrives. Just to clarify – have you got all the information you require now or do you need more?
[Previous Website Designers] As you will see the domains where bought directly by your client and they are in their name and address, so no company transfer required as I never had them on my name. However, at the moment just domain names can be transferred as the .eu domain was left to expire as the clients failed to renew on time. As I had to buy it back (While I was getting married and abroard), so it is currently in limbo, but I’ll chase it for you. If you plan to transfer them to your company control, any information can be provided by the website owners. You can transfer domains and change name server from the control panel. That is as much as I can do, I am sure you have all you need now.
No need to mention that as soon as you change the name servers, the emails and website will not longer be under my control. As a matter of fact I transfer any responsibility for the website and domain names to you as with the information I provide you on this email you have full control of their operations.
[Website Designers] I don’t know what to say, It sounds like your guys havent checked the database before sending. Sorry for the hassle this transfer has caused you, its been more complicated / stressful than any seen before and unfortunately there is another problem where the database cant be imported due to an error on the import function, my guys has identified the problem and would request that this export is done again after the cache tables are emptied. See comments below
We would recommend that you empty any cache tables before backing up the database. The cache data is of no use when moving to a different host, and will make the database import much smaller and more efficient
[Previous Website Designers] Attached is the database where I emptied the cache tables. I had to do it manually as you changed the domain servers and there is no website. (Usually you do this after you have populated the database and copied the files, to minimize the website downtime, otherwise you could end up stuck with no website for very long time). I did it this time as I see you are a little be lost (Sorry if I sound pretentious but it is the only way your guys try to do things by themselves, very easy to ask others when you don’t know). Other options are:
1 Install everything, clear the cache later. If you MySQL server cannot handle 4 MB of data I think you would be in trouble as the website gets many inquiries a month, stored in the database. And it could potentially grow to 100 MB in a year.
2 Remove cache content from table running a SQL script (assuming they can read SQL, if they don’t you can always Google it).
3 If they need some wizard such as phpMyAdmin or similar because they are not developers or they do not know SQL, you can always install the database locally on your PC (You can use Wamp, XAMP, etc) and clear the table using the wizard on phpMyAdmin.
Problem would be if you did not have a table or something was missing, but if the problem is your guys got too much information on their database, they can always delete what they don’t need. Best of luck, if you need help, give me administrator access to your servers and I could do it for you.
[Website Designers] Thanks for the database which has now been imported, the packed size limit was the problem during the previous import and its now imported correctly – Please don’t be overly worried about their technical reply, we have the transfer under control. Now that he has supplied the database with the correct table cleared down the database can be imported correctly. Will need the email addresses and passwords if you want to retain them and also can you give me a ‘personal’ email account that I can send the email setup details to for your reference please Thanks
