Hi, I have a hosting question please

[cressstone]

Hi everyone, this is my first post.

Could anyone please tell me what happens when you buy a site? Do you have to organize a hosting account or do you get some login to take over the site?

[ClaytonL]

It goes either way, depending on what the seller wants to do.

[cressstone]

Is there an advantage to having a new hosting account?

[tke71709]

Everything is under your name and your control.

There is no reason not to have one, unless the site is so complex that it can't be moved to another host. Which is another problem all together.

[cressstone]

It's a forum. I understand that forums are difficult to move even if there isn't anything unusual and it's just a standard forum with a "skin". So it looks like the safe option is to just take over the existing hosting.

[benitez17]

If you do take over the existing hosting, make sure you change all of the passwords.

Do you know what sort of control panel is used for the site? That can make moving the site much easier.

[Hammertime]

It's a forum. I understand that forums are difficult to move even if there isn't anything unusual and it's just a standard forum with a "skin". So it looks like the safe option is to just take over the existing hosting.

Forums are relatively easy to move if you know how and can be done with minimum disruption to users/members.

As a rule, I would always arrange my own hosting.

[LukeMoulton]

I'd recommend setting up a new hosting account and moving it across. If the seller has a hosting reseller account he'll have access to your Cpanels account.

[cressstone]

It turns out there are some scripts written to assist with catching spam. And there are some other mods made which would need to be recreated if the hosting got changed. I could end up making a mess. The current hosting seems good enough so I've taken over the hosting account. I've changed all the passwords, thanks for that tip.

[petertdavis]

Forums are relatively easy to move if you know how and can be done with minimum disruption to users/members.

As a rule, I would always arrange my own hosting.

Small forums can be relatively easy to move if you know what you're doing. Large forums (millions of posts, tens of thousands of members), can be a real ***** to move, even if you know what you're doing. I've seen forums crash and burn because of problems during a move.