Upgrade via new install- database question??

[dizzyfish]

I appreciate that you have taken the time to describe this process... I will take the next day or so and consider all aspects of what you have taken the time to write here.

I do know that I would be better off getting away from the godaddy/cheap hosting services. Unfortunately, I am not in a position to do so. I am relearning a career... I had my spine go to hell and have had a handful of discs get yanked out over the last 15, oh... 20 or so years...

The point is I can not do the things I had in the past to make a living. Since I am older, well too old to get financial help to go back to school, I am on my own like many disabled citizens in the U.S.. So, I have been helping friends and neighbors get their hopes and dreams online. Seems like a good trade, they pay to make the hosting a reality for me to poke about in, and in return they get to try out if their idea to make bucks works.

I have gotten very good at photoshop, illustrator, indesign and everything about digital imaging and printing. I also learned all I could about traditional offset printing as well, but saw that it was all going down the drain since everyone, or at least many people are now going online for information, entertainment, well... a great many things. So... more to learn, the world moves on.

Once I feel I have a good grasp of PHP, CSS and all the issues involved I will spread out a bit. But, for now... I have to take the paths available. The cheapest paths available that will still do what is needed on some level. It is costly to learn, in life, in school... doesn't matter. You pay for an education through mistakes, your own time and effort or by paying a school to give you a rudimentary place to start from.

I wrote above that I appreciate the time you have taken to share the information you have. I wanted to say that I really understand the time and effort you have spent to get to the level of understanding that you have shared with anyone and everyone that comes to read this thread...

For myself and those that will read this later on... Thanks.

[schoolboy]

Hosting need not be expensive... My host where I do all my dev work (more than 100 demo sites) is on a shared server and costs me $5.95 / month. Been with them for 7 years. I get unlimited dbases, unlimited disk space, unlimited bandwidth...

In 7 years never had a problem... on over 100 zencart installations!

This host is properly configured for ZC, runs a proper C-Panel and has excellent housekeeping.

OK... I don't put my clients on this host... I prefer to use one of the CERTIFIED HOSTS for this... Afterall, my clients are running businesses and they need even better reliablilty. I use the certified hosts for live business sites because these hosts do things properly. One even offers PCI-DSS server compliance. That is a huge "tick" in the right box for me... He is also passionate about ZC, so he knows how to set stuff up to minimize risks AND... if I get really stuck, a quick email or support ticket comes back with sensible, knowledgeable answers.

It's quite amazing (to me anyway), that having proper hosting saves me a HUGE amount of time. It's one area I have never had to worry about. I know my hosts won't let me down, and that the systems I need to properly manage my clients' sites are all neatly and efficiently in place.

What can take hours and days for some people (who host on the cheap 'n nasty) takes me a couple of minutes.

But $5.95 / month is certainly cheap... and my dev host isn't nasty!

[dizzyfish]

Ahhh... but you are in Europe where the average person is... hmmm how do I say this without setting myself up for snipers when I go out...

Well, Americans are a mixed bunch and while there are a bunch that are self motivated, etc. well, many more are not. For some reason the business people in the US seem to think that if it is free it sucks. I can not tell you how hard it is to give away free open source software here. I started a Linux Users Club and gave up after a year. I was the only member that showed up.

One example of the most influential open source project, the one that put linux on the map in the USA is Ubuntu which started by a S African business man. Blender, a great 3D application is based in Europe, or somewhere thereabouts. I can probably find more... but what would be the point? I will find many American Businesses are now going down the open source road and companies like Red Hat are doing it. But, any of these American companies are in it for the profits, Ubuntu and other non- US linux projects do not charge for the enterprise level of software. I do not think there are any in the US that will do so, unless it is the BSD Unix variants. In that case it is a University, not a company.

Where did linux start? Finland, I think... Anyway if you lived here I think you would understand what I am trying to say, describe etc.

For most Americans the problem is the educational system, followed by the pressure to consume. Consumption is truly the pinnacle of the American way and for many, dream that is to win the lottery, or get rich via some way, but they are not able to say what that way is.

My America has changed, changed a lot a long time ago and no one is paying attention. Or at least it feels that way. In the 60's we would fight to the death for our rights and some did on American soil, It was a civil war that got swept under the carpet. Today most youth are shallow, drunk, drugged and ignorant of so very much. Howard Zinn, a Harvard Scholar wrote a Best Seller called "A Peoples History Of America" and it is ignored by our youth. Once the Baby Boomers are really no longer moving and shaking America is doomed. Or at least it seems so from where I sit and watch...

You have given me hope however, so I will look around again and see what is available on this side of the water. Things do change and GoDaddy is really getting too annoying for words. Don't even get me started on 1and1.com, as they are truly below the walmart of IPs.

[schoolboy]

yes I am UK-based... but ALL my sites are hosted in either USA (California) or Canada (Toronto).

More than 75% of my clients are in the USA... right across the country... NYC, Baltimore, Salt Lake City, Tampa, LA, Seattle, Battle Creek, Houston, Austin TX, Atlantic City, New Orleans, Mobile...

I spend 9 months of the year in the UK and 3 months in South Africa. Right now I am in the UK, but come winter in the UK I hop on a Jumbo and go to Cape Town for their summer...

[dizzyfish]

Okay, I'll bite... where are you getting your hosting?