moving zen cart to a new server, need help

I want to move my zen cart to a new server (bluehost) because my site is running slow with the old hosting company (network solutions). I am reading from https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=100
, following the instruction but I come across the 1st question i have.
on step 2, it says " Go to your NEW host and upload (FTP) a fresh NEW install using the same version files that you built your other site on.... this will make sure that you get the proper settings in your configure.php files..." my question, a "fresh NEW install" zen cart means the zen cart from my old server that i downloaded or a brand new untouched zen cart? (a friend of mine told me it's the 1st one but i still think it's the 2nd one).

another question I have is step 2, a - install.
my domain name is not yet transfered to the new server. How do I install the zen cart without a domain name?

Please help, thank you.

Vera
http://www.kingtechusa.com/eshop

in case you wonder, my new hosting told me that they won't help me to move my zen cart. :frusty:

What that means is that if your old site is Zen-Cart version 1.3.8a, then you should install a fresh "untouched" 1.3.8a version on your new host. Then, once you have everything else done and your site up and running, you should upgrade, following that process.

When you signed up with BlueHost, they gave you a temporary url using an ip address.........use that to set your site up until your name servers propagates.

Get Em Fast:

What that means is that if your old site is Zen-Cart version 1.3.8a, then you should install a fresh "untouched" 1.3.8a version on your new host. Then, once you have everything else done and your site up and running, you should upgrade, following that process.

When you signed up with BlueHost, they gave you a temporary url using an ip address.........use that to set your site up until your name servers propagates.

so it's a "untouched" zen cart that I need to install, thank you so much.

in case you wonder, my new hosting told me that they won't help me to move my zen cart.
And that from a "ZenCart Certified" Host???

Guess you still get what you pay for...

yes, I asked them about it yesterday, the reply i got was "I can help you with FTP upload but I wont' able to help you with moving the zen cart"....

***********i found it, plz ignore this questions*******Here's another question..
step2, a. Install (when asked about the database-table-prefix during Database-Setup, use the same prefix that your old store uses. You'll find that in the DB_PREFIX setting of your old store's configure.php file.).... i download my zen cart from the old hosting, where can I find the "configure.php file"??

xoxomeowmixoxo:

another question I have is step 2, a - install.
my domain name is not yet transfered to the new server. How do I install the zen cart without a domain name?

If you have opened up a Bluehost account, I believe they'll give you a tempoary URL and FTP login information.

Your account URL should be something like:

http://secure.bluehost.com/~youraccountname

You can install a fresh Zen Cart via Simple Script via the account manager (cpanel)

Also, install Zen Cart on your root directory (public_html) as I believe Bluehost SSL will not support any Zen Cart installations on addon domains/sub directory. I may be wrong on this.

saitomedia:

If you have opened up a Bluehost account, I believe they'll give you a tempoary URL and FTP login information.

Your account URL should be something like:

http://secure.bluehost.com/~youraccountname

You can install a fresh Zen Cart via Simple Script via the account manager (cpanel)
thanks! i just went back to the welcome email and found the tempoary url...

xoxomeowmixoxo:

where can I find the "configure.php file"??

The file is located at includes/configure.php

Your database prefix will be indicated within line #51:

define('DB_PREFIX', 'your prefix');

Use that prefix when installing a new Zen Cart via Simple Script when asked under advanced setting.

I want to move my zen cart to a new server (bluehost) because my site is running slow with the old hosting company

So you're moving to BlueHost/Host Monster? You think speed will improve? Blue Host/Host Monster = same company.

in case you wonder, my new hosting told me that they won't help me to move my zen cart

I'm not sure if that doesn't violate their agreement as Zen Cart Certified Hosts. All other Certified Hosts provide either a Free Install OR Transfer of an existing site.

Vger

BH/HM doesn't offer or provide any special ZC support. But, ZC does run well on their servers, and just about everything they offer "just works" out of the box. Their phone support is (usually) top-notch too. If you call and get a turkeyman, wait 5 min and call back. They do have some very sharp cookies who can do more than just look up questions and parrot answers.

If you want a host to actually help you migrate your site, try CH. I think they will bake the whole cake for you. (maybe).

I am having simular trouble... see my thread here about my issues.... http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=170142

This isn't a Zen Cart problem, it's a problem with your choice of hosting.

EVERY Zen Cart Certified Host, EXCEPT for the one you chose provides free transfers of existing sites.

If your old host and your new host uses cPanel then it's just a "cPanel to cPanel" transfer - and that includes not just your website folders and files, but database, User Names and Passwords, all email accounts and their contents, Cron Jobs etc. The whole shebang! All you have to do is to repoint the dns addresses when it's been done.

Vger

rspencer1762:

I am having simular trouble... see my thread here about my issues.... http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=170142

I am almost done with moving my zen cart to the new server. but i came across the last problem.
the last step: Simply upload the file to your NEW Zen Cart folder and open fix_cache_key.php in your browser.

i did it, uploaded fix_cache_key.php, open it in my browser but i got a blank page. why???

I'm in the process of moving my site from Camelot to Blue Host as well. Camelot has had some real problems with hackers which I think are finally fixed, but my site seems very slow there. I'm hoping for a significant speed improvement with Blue Host. I was also at the edge of additional bandwidth charges each month with Camelot and don't have to worry about that with Blue Host.

Here's hoping the process is smooth!

I also asked Blue Host about help transferring my website and they said then that they didn't do that, but they were more than willing to answer any questions I had in transferring my website. They have been more than helpful in doing that. Camelot did the transfer to their server with no problem when I originally moved to them.

When I originally moved from my first hosting company to Camelot, I did it because I was told that certified hosting companies have their servers configured specifically so that Zen Cart would run in an optimized fashion. I did get a great speed improvement at that time. The Blue Host sales team told me there was no special configuration for servers supporting Zen Cart. I ask, then, what it meant to be a Zen Cart certified hosting company and was told that the Zen Cart folks installed the software on their machines and it worked fine. That's it. I don't think you can believe everything you hear.

Camelot has had some real problems with hackers which I think are finally fixed

I can't say for certain, because I haven't been in touch with Tony at Camelot in a while, but there is a world of difference between the servers of a hosting company being open to attack and websites on those servers being open to attack (usually because the owner hasn't updated them).

The Blue Host sales team told me there was no special configuration for servers supporting Zen Cart.

Partly true, partly untrue. No one would recommend Windows servers or non-Apache servers for hosting Zen Cart. Similarly you wouldn't want to host with a company that ran PHP as an Apache module and not as a CGI (because of the lack of security of the former and the enhanced security of the latter).

was told that the Zen Cart folks installed the software on their machines and it worked fine

Partly true, partly untrue again. You do have to have a track record of installing Zen Cart on your servers, for those installs to work correctly and provide suitable hosting support for Zen Cart. You also have to provide "free installs" of Zen Cart - but this can mean manual installs or auto-installs. The bucket hosts like Blue Host/Host Monster just provide auto-installs (which almost anyone can do) but most of the others provide manual installs and often with additional add-ons pre-configured.

All Zen Cart Certified Hosts, with the exception of Blue Host/Host Monster also offer free transfers in place of a free install. But "free transfers" mean doing actual real work, and so bucket hosting companies aren't interested in providing that level of service.

I don't think you can believe everything you hear

I heartily agree with that - especially when what you hear comes from bucket hosting companies.

Speaking personally - we had to make a decision many years ago - whether to rack up a lot of cheap servers, massively oversell disk space and bandwidth, employ additional hosting support or rent in white-labelled hosting support from one of the specialist companies, or grow more slowly and retain the personal service.

We weren't interested in becoming a bucket host, becoming 'BIG' and then selling out to another larger company for millions as our "exit strategy". We actually enjoy the work we do and we'd have lost that enjoyment if we went down that route. All that we ask is that we make a decent living from our business.

As a result of that we've never had to take on any debt to finance expansion and have brought new servers online as and when we need them. We don't oversell bandwidth and web space and we close servers to new sites well before they get to be crowded. None of our servers use anything near the amount of space available on the hard drives, and none of them use anything near the amount of bandwidth we get allocated from the Data Centre for each server (despite increasing the amount of web space and bandwidth we offer to customers year-on-year).

I don't think I'm letting out any state secrets when I say that the Certified Hosts who operate along similar lines to ourselves are less than happy at allowing bucket hosts to become Certified Hosts.

Vger

markgrigsby:

The Blue Host sales team told me there was no special configuration for servers supporting Zen Cart.
And what would you expect them to say?
GoDaddy would state the same about their servers

If you are satisified, then good, You should use one of the free monitors and track it or PM me and I can provide some insight about BH

The fact that Linux is open source just as ZenbCart, can you believe that every ZenCart is the same ?

A bucket host(thanks vger), just installs the lamp stack with the defaults while others tweak them for many things and why someone who gets a VPS or dedicated ad asks here what will make it faster they usually get little response
Our tweaking takes alot of time and is property

Vger:

I don't think I'm letting out any state secrets when I say that the Certified Hosts who operate along similar lines to ourselves are less than happy at allowing bucket hosts to become Certified Hosts.
Fully agree with this

Very well said.