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Once you have your website built, and have a web hosting account you want to put it in, you can proceed to upload your website for everyone on the internet to see. How you go about doing this depends on what software program(s) you used to build your website. This article explains the two most popular ways to upload your website to your webhosting account. 


Typical Uploading Method
The typical way to upload your website (which is actually a collection of files and folders) to your hosting account is to use an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program. An FTP program simply provides you with an easy way to select files on your computer's hard drive, and copy them over to your hosting account (which is essentially another computer). An FTP program will typically have two main "windows": one that shows the files and folders located on your computer, and one that shows the files and folders in your hosting account on the server. To upload your webpages (or website's files) and other associated image files to your hosting account, you have to select the files and folders you want to upload from your webhosting in your computer window, and then "drag and drop" them over to the server window, essentially copying them to the server (and more specifically, to your web hosting account).

That is a very simplistic explanation of how to use an FTP program to copy files from your computer to the web hosting server. You can actually use an FTP program to copy files from ANY computer, to ANY OTHER computer, provided you have access to both machines. One of the most popular FTP programs is WS_FTP by ipswitch (www.ipswitch.com). We have put together several support tutorials on using WS_FTP.... Click here if you would like to watch our WS_FTP tutorials.

Using an FTP program is the best (and easiest) way to get files uploaded to your web hosting account, no matter what program(s) you use to create your website..... with one exception: Microsoft Frontpage.

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Uploading with Microsoft FrontPage
If you use FrontPage to build your website, then you do not need an webhosting program. In fact, you should not use an FTP program because FrontPage works a little differently than most other website design software. Instead, you will need the FrontPage Server Extensions installed in your hosting account (if you need these, we provide them free of charge), and you will use FrontPage's integrated "Publish" feature (click here for more information on Microsoft Frontpage) instead of an FTP program. Just because FrontPage is different, doesn't mean it's better or worse than any other publishing method.... but FrontPage is probably the webhosting popular website design software in use today, mainly for it's ease of use, and similar look and feel to Microsoft's other highly popular software titles like Word, Excel, Access and PowerPoint.

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The following should be done BEFORE you do anything with the hosting account your webhosting FROM (i.e. do not cancel that account yet), and BEFORE you do anything with your domain name:

1. Order a new hosting account from the web hosting provider of your choice.

2. Once your new account is setup and the login information has been sent to you, login to your new account and setup all your email addresses. When doing this, take note of your new POP3 and SMTP email settings that you will eventually have to enter into your email client (i.e. Outlook Express or Eudora).

3. Upload your web files (i.e. website, databases, scripts, etc.) to your new hosting account. You will have to use the account's IP address to do this, since your domain name is still pointing to your old hosting account.

Once you're satisfied that you've got all your files moved over to the new hosting account, you want your domain name to start pointing to the new server, instead of the old one. Continue with the following steps:

4. Change the DNS settings of your domain name to point to the new hosting account's nameservers. You do this through your domain name registrar. Once you make these changes, it may take 24 to 48 hours for propagation to complete. Once that's finished, your domain name will be directing traffic to the copied version of your website on the new server, at the new web hosting company. Also, your email will all be going to the new hosting account (webhosting is why you would have wanted to setup your email addresses prior to this).

5. Modify your POP3 and SMTP email settings in your email client (i.e. Outlook Express or Eudora) to the new settings for your new hosting account. As soon as you make these changes, any email that was sent to you after the DNS propagated would have been stored on the new server.... and should now download into your email client.

6. Check and double-check to make sure that everything is running smoothly on the new server, and that all your files, images, databases, etc have been successfully loaded. You should check in the old hosting account to make sure there are no new database entries, form submissions etc, that could have arrived in the 48 hours prior to propagation being completed (in which case they would have arrived in the old account). If you find anything that is not in the new account, copy it over. Also check to make sure you have all your server-side scripts running OK, as often times it is necessary to make adjustments in the scripts webhosting on the relative locations of certain files.

Once you are satisfied that you have everything you need from the old account, and everything is running smoothly with the new account, you can cancel your old account. You have successfully switched to a new web hosting company!

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