MIGRATION ANNOUNCEMENT
We will be starting the migration of your web hosting account to our San Diego platform this weekend. This email was designed to provide you with information to make the migration easier. Most of this migration will be performed without your participation. However, please see the MIGRATION NOTES below to avoid any complications.
Sequence of Events:
Stage 1: On Saturday June 23rd at 5:00pm, we will be disabling Frankland Hosting control panel (Helm) until your account has been migrated. Web Based email will not be affected. This is being done to ensure that the data stays the same between the time we move the data and the time your files are actually migrated. We hope to keep this under 1 week. Please make any edits to your account now. e.g. Add, Edit, Update Email Accounts.
Please Note: If you have an invoice due and are unable to make payment please do not worry- your account will NOT be deactivated. Please disregard any payment reminders. See "migration notes" below.
Stage 2: At some point next week, when your account data has been migrated, we will send you a notice (a minimum of 24 hours in advance) that we will be suspending FTP access until your files have been moved. This is being done to ensure we have a current copy of your files should there be a lag between the time your files are moved and when your domains(s) begin to point to the new platform. Please make any FTP updates now.
Stage 3: Once your files have been moved, and your account data migrated, we will automatically point your domain to the new system. Our goal is to make this happen within 24 hours of moving your website files.
Database Users: Due to the discrepancy between the time your files (e.g. databases) are moved and the your website points to the new platform, updates could be made to your database by visitors to your site (or yourself). We highly advise that once we inform you that FTP will be suspended, that you immediately publish a "site down" page. The template provided at the link below will automatically take precedence over any other file and be shown to visitors. It will not be necessary to remove this file later.
Migration Page: http://www.ephost.com/support/index.php?_m=downloads&_a=viewdownload&downloaditemid=2
IMPORTANT MIGRATION NOTES:
Please note the enclosed items very carefully:
1) WEB BASED EMAIL USERS: Individual mail items (old emails still on the system) will NOT be migrated, but your email accounts will be moved. It will not be necessary to setup your email accounts again. However, please DOWNLOAD A COPY OF YOUR EMAIL (POP3) on or before we announce STAGE 2 if you wish to keep any old email. We will do our best to make the old email system available for a few days after the migration but please download your email.
See: http://www.ephost.com/support/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=45
2) WEB HOSTING PLAN: As per our previous emails, your web hosting plan will be migrated to the corresponding plan at EPhost, based on the outline previously stated. Unless you have been notified in advance there will be no change to your price.
3) BILLING DUE DATE CHANGE: We will be changing all invoices to be due on the first (1st) of the month in which they are due. This may not apply to some extra features like domain name registrations. We will ramp-up your current billing in the best possible mannor. THis does mean though that your bill may beslightly lower or higher than normal until the next billing period. You can be assured you will not be over-charged.
4) BILLING HISTORY: We will not be able to keep the billing history on your account. During the migration, your account balance, if any, will be brought "forward" and or pro-rated based on the new billing due date change noted above.
5) THIRD-PARTY DNS USERS: This does not apply to 99% of our users. However, if your domain is pointed to a 3rd Party DNS server rather than our DNS servers you should pay close attention to all of the migration news. It will not be possible to let you know in advance which server your website will reside when migrated. We will do our best to inform you of IP changes as soon as possible. Please submit a ticket to support@ephost.com so we can track you.
If you are not sure if you are using a 3rd Party DNS server, enter your domain name (e.g. your_domain.com) at the following address. http://www.netsol.com/whois If you see any of the nameservers listed below you are fine.
ns0.networknameservers.com
ns1.networknameservers.com
ns0.franklandhosting.com
ns1.franklandhosting.com
ns0.franklandhosting.net
ns1.franklandhosting.net
6) STATISTICS USERS: It will be necessary to reset statistics. Please download any historical reports you wish to keep. Additionally, the AW Stats system will be retired and will not be available on the new platform. After the migration you can re-enable the statistics (SmarterStats) for your domain.
7) PASSWORD PROETCTED DIRECTORIES: If you have used the control panel to implement a password protected directory it is advisable to rename that directory or remove the protected content temporarily. Once your account has been migrated, you can then re-implement the password protection. NOTE: DNN users (or the like) this does not apply to you. Your application has built-in password protection.
8) FRONT PAGE USERS: If you are using Front Page, you will need to re-enable Front Page after the migration. We hope that you will consider NOT using Front Page in the future as we are considering dropping that feature due to the problems it causes. As we understand, Microsoft is introducing a similar product that may or may not be better. We recommend Dreamweaver.
9) CUSTOM ERROR PAGES: We may or may not be able to transfer your custom error pages to the new platform. If not, you will need to re-enable them after the migration.
10) DEDICATED IP ADDRESSES: If your account has been assigned a dedicated IP address, it will be replaced with a new IP address after the migration. We will inform you of the new IP address as soon as we can. If you have other hosted domains pointing to a dedicated IP address (e.g. for DNN Portals), it is VERY IMPORTANT YOU CHECK to make sure we found and made the IP change in the DNS Zone Editor on that domain as well. If not, you can immediately update it via the control panel. We apologize for the possible inconvenience.
MIGRATION NOTES FOR RESELLERS ONLY:
Please pay close attention to the following notes. First, let us extend our sincerest apologies in advance for the inconvenience- this migration will impact you the most. Simply put there are too many variables to track.
Your reseller account itself will be migrated as completely as possible. We will do our best to make sure we have kept all of the individual custom settings we can BUT it is very likely some things cannot be migrated.
Your customers accounts/domains/websites will be migrated with little or no participation from you. All you'll need to to is pass-on the information we provide to your customers as we send it to you.
IMPORTANT NOTES:
1) GENERIC PLAN FOR YOUR CUSTOMERS: To avoid complications like incorrect billing, your customers MAY be migrated into a temporary "generic web hosting plan" we'll setup for you. After the migration has been completed you MAY need place them into the correct web hosting plan. We stress "MAY" because we are working hard to try to keep all of your settings.
2) BILLING TEMPORARILY DISABLED AND BILLING HISTORY NOT MIGRATED: If you are using the billing system in the control panel (Helm), you will need to re-enable billing on your reseller account AND re-setup the billing for your customers. This includes bringing their balance forward. We suggest you make a handwritten ledger TODAY regarding your customer's invoice dates, current balances and recurring transactions. Please do not wait to do this.
3) NAMESERVERS: We do not anticipate having you make changes to your private nameservers. This means no change to your domain name's nameserver records will be necessary.
4) HELM EXTENSIONS: Helm Extensions will be available on the new platform but we will not be able to migrate any of the settings. If you are using any of the Helm Extension features, you will need to re-enable thse features for your customers.
The new system will be better for you and your customers. Soon after the migration we will have several new updates for you and your customers!!
Helm 4 Control Panel
New Application Packs
EPhost Website Builder
Smarter Mail 4
