A quick start guide to transferring your domains and web hosting from an external provider

This guide is designed to break down the transfer procedure into easily followed steps, and to maximise site uptime. This assumes that you have already purchased a suitable hosting package, or that you currently have an active Reseller package. If downtime is not a concern, you do not need to set up a domain reference, simply transfer in the domain and set up a package from there. 



Non-Reseller

1) Add a domain reference. A domain reference allows our system to direct traffic for an external domain that you own or control. 

- From your Customer Area, go to 'Manage>Domain Names' from the right-hand menu 
- Select 'Web Hosting Domain References'. 
- Enter your new domain and hit 'Add Reference' Note: domains take the form example.com. Do not include subdomains (e.g. www). 

2) Assign your package to the reference. 

- Go to 'Manage>Web Hosting' from the right-hand menu. 
- Assign your unused package to the newly created reference. 
- The new package will take approximately one hour to fully complete setup. 
As a Reseller

Go to step 3 below. 



Reseller

1) Add a domain reference. A domain reference allows our system to direct traffic for an external domain that you own or control (i.e. one not already with Planet HippoF

 

 

 

 

 

). 

- From your Reseller Control Centre, go to the 'Domain References' section. 
- Enter your new domain and hit 'Add Reference'. e.g. If your domain is webhosting.com, that is exactly what you would enter. 

The system can now 'handle' your domain

2) Add hosting to your domain

- From your Reseller Control Centre go to 'Configure Hosting Packages'. 
- Set up a package (Linux or Windows) with all the features you would like to include. 
- Return to your Reseller Control Centre, then go to 'Add Hosting Accounts'. 
- Select your newly created reference from the top drop-down, and your new package from the bottom drop-down, then hit 'Activate Hosting'. 
- Your new package will typically take around an hour to set up. 




3) Transferring your files to your new package. 

Download your files (and databases, if included) from your old provider. We recommend doing this via FTP, Filezilla (http://http://filezilla-project.org/) is an excellent choice of client. 
- From your Customer Area or Reseller Control Centre, select your new package from the 'Access Planet Hippo Web Hosting Control Panel' drop-down. 
- Look on the right, take note of your FTP details (username, password, IP address of FTP server). 
- Unlock FTP permanently by IP, for a suitable period of time. 
Upload your website using the credentials you noted down. 
- If your site contains a MySQL database, go to the 'MySQL Databases' section of PH CP, create a new database, then use our integrated tool toupload it (note: Do not use PHPMyAdmin, it has a 2mb size limit which will stop you uploading). 
- Mailboxes, if required, can also be set up within Planet Hippo CP. 
- Your site should now be ready to go. 

4) Update your domain's nameservers to point at us, they are as follows: 
ns1.mainnameserver.com 
ns2.mainnameserver.com 
Your site will automatically begin working, once your DNS changes have propagated. 

5) Transfer your domain, the process varies, depending upon domain type. 

uk : Ensure that the IPS tag has been set to PLANETHIPPO. Speak to your current domain provider about this. The IPS tag is what associates a domainwith a specific provider. 

eu : A confirmation request will be sent to the billing handle for your domain - this will normally be set to your domain provider, in which case no further action is required from yourself. 

gTLD (.com/.net/.org/.name) : First, you will need to contact your current registrar, and ensure that the domain is unlocked. You should also request the transfer auth code (sometimes known as the EPP). Finally, ensure that the domain's administrative contact email address is set to amailbox that you have access to. Once the transfer request is made, An email will then be sent from the registry (opensrs/tucows) to the administrative contact address. This email contains the necessary instructions to authorise the transfer. Transfers take a maximum of seven days to complete from point of authorisation. 

To request a transfer, follow the steps below: 

- From your Planet Hippo Control Panel, Click 'Order>Transfer a Domain' from the right-hand menu. 
- Enter the URL of your domain in the box at the bottom, then click 'Start Transfer' . 
- This will place the domain in your basket; this is accessible from the top right-hand side of the screen. 
- Click 'Checkout Now'. 
- Scroll to the bottom and click 'order' 
- Click 'Agree'. 
- Click 'Complete Purchase'.

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