unfortunatly a friend has died who hosted our web site that also had email attached and we can no longer access this. Is there any way we can get it moved to another host along with our web address etc..

Nigel, May 2008

Use the following steps to change your web host :


Find a new hosting provider and purchase a hosting account
Backup your database and FTP it to your development PC or your home PC
Upload your website to the new hosting account. You will be able to check that it works as expected by surfing to the IP address (type the IP address into the browser instead of a domain name).
Create a database with the same name as your old database and the restore it using the backup file.
Login to your domain name account and change the nameservers over to your new hosting company. Typically 2 nameservers are setup - the look like this ns1.hostingcompany.com. If you bought your domain from your current hosting company then you may have to ask them to do it.
It normally takes 24-48hrs for the nameservers to update, once they do your website will automatically be served up from your new hosting company

After changing/transfer you web host, you can check your whois data gets updated or not by using WhoisXY.com .

chaand, January 2014

Hmmm, this is a very tricky situation!! Usually it is difficult to change the hosting of an existing website without the help of the current host.

If your website is still live, and you are happy with a static HTML site (nothing dynamic like contact forms etc) you can sometimes do a "Site Grab" to copy the files off the internet. This way you'll have a copy of all your pages including html files and images that you could host on another server.

An easy way to do this is just to go to your website and click "File" > "Save As" and save the whole site page by page. Alternatively you could use a specialised program like WinHTTrack Website Copier.

As for the emails, that's a bit more complicated. You'll need to get control of the domain somehow, but the person who hosted your website and domain is probably the only person who is authorised. I would reccommend doing a WHOIS (just go to a website like www.register.com and search your domain. Then when it says "Taken" click "View details") to find out what company the domain is registered with, and contact them directly to see if they'll give you access to the domain.

Good luck!!

Tracey Munro, January 2009

I am not an expert but it seems clear to me that if the existing host will not communicate with you or hand over the existing site to you then you will have to start again with a new site and a new host.

Tom Derby., July 2008