Moving from Windows 2003 (Helm) Hosting

Migrating from our Windows 2003 hosting to new Windows 2012R2 hosting

Many customers wish to move over to our newer Windows 2012R2 hosting.  The process of doing this involves moving website files, database data and changing IP addresses in the domain’s DNS zone.  It may also involve changing database connection strings and updating scripts to be compatible.

Whilst this may seem difficult we try to make things as easy as possible.  Once you have decided to move we are happy to keep your existing Windows 2003 hosting open for a couple of weeks free of charge to allow time to get everything transferred over.

If you wish to transfer over firstly you will need to choose the package you require.  All packages are listed on our website and maybe the same cost as you currently pay so there may be no additional charges at all.  Once you have chosen your package then simply raise a ticket with our support team.

Once the new account is set up you can start transferring your website files and databases.

Below is further information about the process and compatibilities between our Windows 2003 hosting and our Windows 2012R2 hosting.

Email Accounts

The same email servers are used by both hosting systems so there will be no need to change any settings and there will be no downtime.  We simply need to move control of the email accounts from the Helm control panel to MSPControl/SolidCP control panel used by our Windows 2012R2 hosting.

DNS

As with email, both systems use the same DNS servers so we just need to move control of DNS to MSPControl/SolidCP.  The website(s) will have different IP addresses so we can change the DNS records accordingly once you are ready.  If you do not use our name servers then you will need to update the IP address in the DNS zone once you are ready.

ASP Components

On our Windows 2003 hosting we support the following components: -

  • CDONTS
  • CDOSYS
  • w3 Jmail Pro
  • ASPSmartUpload
  • ASPThumb
  • HSBC Payment Gateway (CPI)

On our Windows 2012R2 hosting we only now support CDOSYS and ASPThumb.  The other components are not available on this hosting.

Sending Email via Scripts

On our Windows 2003 hosting you could send emails by using “localhost” as the SMTP server and this did not require authentication.  On our Windows 2012R2 hosting this is not possible.  You now need to use our standard SMTP server (mail.controldns.co.uk) and authenticate with your email address and corresponding mailbox password.  This applies to all scripting languages including PHP.  For PHP we recommend using PHPMailserver - https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer.

Microsoft Access Databases

On our Windows 2003 hosting the Microsoft Jet driver was generally used to connect to MS Access databases (and other data such as Excel documents).  On our Windows 2012R2 hosting you now need to use the ACE driver.

You should just need to update the connection string from "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;"  to  "Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;"

Webspace Absolute Path

The absolute path to your webspace will be different on our Windows 2012R2 hosting.  On Windows 2003 this was:-

D:\Domains\yourdomain.com

On Windows 2012R2 this is now: -

E:\hostingspaces\youraccountname\yourdomainname.com

Website Statistics

On our Windows 2003 hosting we supported AWStats and SmarterStats for website statistics.  We found that these we not widely used at all by our customers and therefore do not offer these on our Windows 2012R2 hosting.  We suggest customers use free analytical services such as Google Analytics.

 

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