New hosting company, transferring from phpBB, etc

Hello,

I am trying to transfer my phpBB board to my new vb board. At the same time I am transferring from one hosting company to Real Web Host. I had to wait for the new hosting company to get their VPS packages together. I will be their first VPS customer. They are ready so sometime today my husband will have time and he will deal with the transfer. It will be a relief to have that part done. (By the way, Joey at Real Web Host is TERRIFIC!!! I'll be posting about this experience in the hosting forum.)

I've chosen a skin for my new vb board and during this down time while we been waiting for the hosting company to have the VPS for us I've gone through the hacks and mods for vb and I've chosen a few that I'd like to be included on my new board. I've pretty much done all that I can do on my end. I'm an admin and my husband is the actual geek. I learn as I go. Shoot, when I got my first website I didn't even understand HTML so I really do learn.

Everything that we are doing is a new experience for me. Transferring the domain name, updating name servers, learning what a VPS is and then selecting the package, all of this is new ground for me. Dealing with vb is new for my husband. He designs his own software so buying the vb license and then using it is all new ground for him.

In order to make the process easier on my husband so that I wouldn't take up too much of his time I purchased the professional installation and I hope that, that was a wise move. My intentions were good when I bought it but for some strange reason I'm getting the hint of a impression that it might be easier for him to do it himself. I don't know.

I'm feeling a little frustrated because everything is taking so long. I understand that we needed to wait for the new hosting company to actually have a VPS for us to move too but this whole thing feels like I'm just spinning my wheels. Now my husband is telling me that when we get the old board moved to the new host that it will be weeks before everything is done and I actually have my new board.

Is this true? Did it take you guys weeks to get things done?

To be very honest with you I have not been able to get my husband to hardly even look at the vb forums. He's been on the board where I purchased the license once. I've directed him here to this board and to that one many times but for some reason he just wont go. I guess he will today after we move to the new host.

Is it really going to take weeks? He's talking about that we will need to transfer the old board to the new server twice because we have to transfer the board once to make sure that everything is working and then by that time there will be new posts so we'll need to transfer it again. That makes sense to me.

I guess the main question here is that once we transfer the board over properly is it really going to take weeks to get this done? I really don't think so.

I wish that I could just do this myself. I'm not afraid of new things but I am afraid of diving into something where because of ignorance I could permanently mess things up.

My husband just spelled it all out for me. If any of you have done this transferring from phpBB to vb please look at this and give feedback that I can show him.


Here is my plan with a rough estimate of the # of days
to allocate to each step. As I have it described here it
will take 2 weeks. It is possible to do it in a few days,
or you could spend a month, I think 2 weeks is a good
down-the-middle length of time. Every one of these steps
you should be able to understand so read this and ask me
if something doesn't make sense to you.


=== Day 0 (Overview) ===

(0) Our basic plan is to (a) get a new server, (b) install
vbulletin on it, (c) import FSHD data, (d) test it and
configure it, (e) import FSHD data a second time, (f) tell
network solutions to move the domain, (g) wait & celebrate

=== Day 1-2 (The New Server) ====

(1) Get a VPS server with no domain name

This is a VPS server from www.realwebhost.net but it will
not operate any domain name. That means you connect to
it with an IP address.

=== Day 3 (Testing) ====

(2) Test / get-to-know the new server. This includes
making sure that SSH (secure shell) works to
connect to the server, testing the FTP function
and configuring your local machine to use the
FTP server, and a dozen other small things like
that.

=== Day 4-5 (The Installation) ===

(3) Install Vbullet on the new server, and try to establish
that it's working. (The "Professional Installation" may
take place at this time.)

=== Day 6 (Moving and Testing) ===

(4) Make a backup of your PHPBB board and
save that backup to a location where it can
be accessed via web

(5) Go to the new server and download, from the
web, the backup file.

(6) The second that download is done, run back to
the PHPBB server and remove that backup from the
web directory, since it is a security hazard.

(7) Now go back to the new server and run the
import-wizard which takes all of the data from
the backup and populates the new board with it.

(8) Now check it out. At this stage we should see
a copy of your old site running under Vbulletin
on the new server. You will not have a homepage
or anything like that; just the forum section.
The URL to see your forum will be something like
http://82.107.63.235/freebies/

=== Day 7-10 (Configuring Vbulletin) ===

(9) Now we start to worry about configuring Vbulletin,
for everything other than skins (that's covered
next.) This means picking the menu options, setting
up the abilities of admins, etc. etc.

(10) Skin installation / development

This includes finding and installing the right skin
on the server. The "skin" project can take as
long as we want to spend on it, but I would suggesting
finding a skin which is close to what we want to use
and configuring it as best as possible for use "as-is."
From there, we can modify the skin to suit our needs.

(11) We still don't have a homepage, or any HTML pages on
the site. Luckily, the backup file from step #5 will contain
that info. Put the homepage where it belongs, put the deals
and contests pages etc. where they belong. Now it's
starting to actually look like a site.

(12) CGI-BIN conversion. The backup from step #5 will
also contain some scripts like "batedit" and the script
for Binky's Adventure game. These will have to be installed
on the new CGI directory and some effort will have to be
made to get them to work. Because some the directory names
will be different on the new server they will not work
automatically, but with some testing and changes we should
be able to get them to work in less than an hour.

=== Day 11 (Rrecap) ===

(13) At this point we should be able to cruise the server on
the IP address without many problems. We give it a once-over
and make sure that everything is happy and good. The homepage will
work, the forum will be in place, we will be happy with the
skin, and so forth. Still left on the to-do list is:
(a) the second transfer of PHPBB data
(b) the domain name transfer
(c) setting up email on the new server

=== Day 12 (The Big Move) ===

(14) Now it's time to actually do the move. You bid all of
your FSHD friends farewell, tell them that the site will
go offline for a while, and when it comes back you'll be
on the new site.
i. Farewell message to all your friends
ii. Take FSHD offline (somehow)

(15) Now FSHD is offline at the old hosting company forever. Make
the final backup which will be transfered

(16) Go to the new server and unzip the new backup.

(17) Immediately run back to the old server and remove the
backup from the web directory as it is a security hazard.

(18) Back on new server, run the import wizard to move the
data from the final backup to the new Vbulletin installation.

(19) Immediately go to Network Solutions and inform them of
the new nameserver IP addresses. This information will
propagate throughout the world over the next 24-48 hours.

(20) Now the only thing left is the Email situation. The new
hosting may need to help with this, or maybe its something
that we can setup on our VPS without their help. Your local
machine will have to be reconfigured to be able to fetch
mail from the new host. Outgoing mail, as always, will be
delivered via comcast.

=== Day 13-14 (Waiting) ===

(21) At this stage the site is accessible to anybody via the
IP address, but only a lucky few people can access it from
www.freestuffhotdeals.com. However, over the next 48
hours that will change, until finally everybody in the world
can reach the site at its new location.

It shouldn't take weeks. I can move an entire site in 3 hours max what takes time is the name server update. Anytime you change name servers, it has to propagate all of the world. In other words, you updating the name servers has to be updated in all the different name servers all across the world. It should take at most 3 days. For me, on average, if I update my name servers at 9 PM, I can see my site on the new server by the next morning but probably not everyone else in the world can.

Importing the phpBB shouldn't be a problem if you download Impex from vB. It's free when you buy your vB license.

After the professional install is done all that has to be done is the import from phpBB, adding your chosen style, and tweaking the settings. What will take the most time is nameserver update but like I said above some will be able to see the site on the new server while others won't for a couple of days.

Thanks Danny Boy. I truly appreciate your post. Husband is going to a meeting when he gets back I'll show him this post.

Thank you so very much.