Server Migration ChristianWebHosting.com Scheduled for May 22 after 1:00 p.m. PST
We will be updating this page before, during and after the migration to keep you up to date on the latest information of the migration. We’ll put the newer info at the top.
SUPPORT: Remember to use a third party email service such as gmail to contact us if your email isn’t working. This way we will have open lines of communications. In addition to being able to open tickets via our billing system interface, we have two email addresses for support. The primary support address is support[at]christianwebhosting.com . If you write to this address and don’t hear from us in 3 hours, then (and only then) try our secondary support address, support[at]web-hosting-inc.com . Note, both addresses go to the same place and get the same high priority. During the migration, our staff will be very busy. We are here to help but if you write to both addresses at the same time, or fire in repeated duplicate requests, or you don’t wait three hours for a response, this will be considered an abusive attempt to butt in light in front of others and we will put your ticket(s) at the end of the line. I know that is harsh but some people think that firing in multiple messages makes things go faster when in fact reading each repeated message slows us down.
05/23/2024 – 3:00 pm PST — Migration to new server complete
It has been 24 hours since the accounts were transferred to the new server and all known issues have been resolved. We will be monitoring things closely and will update this page if announcements need to be made.
05/22/2024 – 3:00 pm PST — All sites are coming up.
We have finished resolving some minor issues that were causing some sites to get a “403 Error”. All sites are coming up.
IF YOU MANAGE YOUR OWN DOMAIN NAME SERVERS – CHANGE YOUR WEBSITE IP ADDRESS NOW.
The new server will have a different name and IP Address as follows.
OLD SERVER NAME: host.webhostingservers.net IP ADDRESS: 69.167.154.177
NEW SERVER NAME: HOST2.EZ2BA.COM IP ADDRESS: 69.167.187.58
05/22/2024 – 2:50 pm PST — Accounts and data have been copied to the new server.
We are bringing sites back on line. This may take a little while. We can then begin the process of testing.
05/22/2024 – 1:05 pm PST — The migration process has begun.
I just received word from our system administrators that they have begun copying date to the new server. We’ll be updating this page as the process progresses.
05/08/2024 – Follow up to announcement email
A Note From Thomas:
Dear Valued Client,
Honestly, I have a love/hate relationship with server upgrades. I can see the value of upgrading to some premium hardware because we all benefit from faster, more reliable websites. That’s exciting. At the same time, overseeing upgrades is by far the most stressful part of my job. There are months of preparation and thousands of things to keep track of that can go wrong. And it all comes down to one day and hundreds of websites that need to be up and running without a hitch. That’s a great deal of responsibility that we take very seriously.
In addition to newer hardware, the primary reason for the server upgrade is that the current operating system (CentOS) is not compatible with newer versions of our Control Panel. This page contains important information that you’ll need to know in order to make things go as smoothly as possible.
When: May 22 after 1:00 p.m. PST
Downtime: We expect downtime to last between 3 to 6 hours when your site and email will not be accessible.
Live Reports: https://christianwebhosting.com/upgrade/ (We will keep updating this page as time permits to let you know of the progress of the migration)
The migration should take 3 to 6 hours and we will keep the downtime to a minimum during this window. Such a move is a very complex process, as such, sometimes things don’t go as planned. For this reason we’ll be all hands on deck in hopes that if something isn’t working that we’ll be able to fix it as quickly as possible. To prevent problems, we’re actually doing the migration twice. Once behind the scenes where we will try to test each website on the new server a few days before the final migration in order to catch problems before they become public. The final migration scheduled above is when we’ll copy any updated files to the new server and bring everything up on line.
Please be patient during and after the migration as we will be working hard to test the new platform as well as dealing with any tech support requests that may come in. We ask that you hold off on non-emergency issues for the Monday after the migration.
Self managed domains & Third Party DNS
If you handle your domain registration and name servers then you’re using third party DNS services and you will need to change the IP Address of the site and or email to the new server IP Address. Change the IP Address from the “Old Server” to the “New Server” IP Address. You should make this change at the start time of the migration.
OLD SERVER NAME: host.webhostingservers.net IP ADDRESS: 69.167.154.177 *(This was updated from the original email)
NEW SERVER NAME: HOST2.EZ2BA.COM IP ADDRESS: 69.167.187.58
UPGRADE PHP
If you’re website software isn’t up to date (Especially WordPress Users) then it may not be compatible with the new server software. Using the MultiPHP Manager tool in your account Control Panel you should make sure you’re upgraded to the highest possible PHP version that will work with your site. We may not be able to recover your site if this is not completed before the migration. If you can’t upgrade to at least PHP version 7.4, your site may not work on the new servers. Note that version 7.4 is no longer supported and will be removed from the server in the future. We’re keeping it simply for compatibility at this time. Ultimately, the goal would be to upgrade to PHP 8.1 or higher. If you can’t upgrade to PHP 8.1 or later, you may need to make sure everything is up to date and then contact the creator of your theme and plugins to find out if they have a version compatible with PHP 8.1+.
As a general rule you should upgrade PHP on your account as often as an update becomes available in the Control Panel > MultiPHP Manager tool. The new server will only support PHP version 7.4 and 8.x. Here’s a tutorial on managing PHP versions: https://christianwebhosting.com/2024/03/changing-php-versions/ . PHP versions PHP 5.4, thru PHP 8.0 are deprecated. We recommend that you update to a supported version of PHP. For more information, read https://www.php.net/supported-versions.php .
Logging into cPanel and Webmail
The login to the Control Panel and Webmail change remain as follows (yourdomain.com refers to your actual domain) if your site is hosted on our servers.
http://yourdomain.com/cpanel (Control Panel)
http://yourdomain.com/webmail (Webmail)
If you host your website off of our servers. If you use webmail or log into cPanel using the server name (most people who have remote websites) then you’ll need to use the new server name. If you host your site elsewhere and use us for email services (Wix or Squarespace users for example), you’ll need to use the following settings with the server name to access Webmail, the Control Panel and set up your email applications.
https://host2.ez2ba.com/cpanel (Control Panel)
https://host2.ez2ba.com/webmail (Webmail)
EMAIL and WEBMAIL issues:
Email Problems after update: If you’re having trouble logging into email or downloading email, or are downloading no mail when you should have some. Try rebooting your computer/device so it will pick up the new server IP Address. Note, this issue can persist for up to 24 hours depending on how often your ISP updated their domain name services tables.
Apple Devices: Base on experience, it would appear that Apple devices get their addressing for websites and email from a cloud service that takes longer than most to update. This is not something that we can fix as we have no control over the service Apple uses. Patience wins the day but it can take up to 72 hours for Apple devices to recognize the change.
The current email settings remain the same. Since we’ll be moving the old server name to the be hosted on the new server, you don’t need to immediately change your email settings — they “should” work fine on the new server. The following are the new settings to try if the old settings don’t work for your computer for some reason.
Email applications should use the following settings for new email boxes on the new server.
Username: Your full email addressg
Password: Use the email account’s password.
Incoming Server: host2.ez2ba.com (or you can use your mail.yourdomain.com if you have an SSL Certificate)
IMAP Port: 993 POP3 Port: 995
Outgoing Server: host2.ez2ba.com (or you can use your mail.yourdomain.com if you have an SSL Certificate)
SMTP Port: 465
IMAP, POP3, and SMTP require authentication (for both incoming and outgoing servers).
05/08/2024 – Notified all clients via email account on file.
Subject: Important Server Upgrade, May 22 after 1:00 p.m. PST
Dear {$client_first_name},
I’m excited to let you know that we’re preparing to upgrade the server for {$service_domain} on the evening of May 22th after 1:00 p.m. PST. We expect some downtime (3-6 hrs) while we move a copy of the accounts to the new server. The current server was built in 2020 and the OS has reached the end-of-life support from the developers. The new server is much more equipped to handle today’s web environment with dramatic improvements in reliability and speed. I won’t bore you with the details, but the specs are incredible.
SERVER INFO: (this is important for clients that manage their own domain name services)
The new server will have a different name and IP Address as follows.
OLD SERVER NAME: host.webhostingservers.net IP ADDRESS: 69.167.154.177 *This was updated from the original letter
NEW SERVER NAME: HOST2.EZ2BA.COM IP ADDRESS: 69.167.187.58
To keep an eye on the most current information we’ve set up a special page for this purpose: http://ChristianWebHosting.com/upgrade . We will be updating that page throughout the process. Moving hundreds of websites requires a lot of work and to make things go smoother, I’d recommend the following. Make sure that any software you’re using (WordPress, Joomla, plugins and themes, etc.) that require PHP are up to date before the migration. We will be updating both PHP and MySQL and if your software is not updated, there’s a chance that your site will have trouble on the new server. Out of date software is the most common problem we run into when upgrading the server. By doing it now, you can have the confidence that things are going to work as our staff will be quite busy for several days before and after the migration.
It’s always a good idea to have a backup email address to use to contact us just in case the problem you experience is with email itself. We will give your request top priority and the issue will be documented and tracked so that we can resolve it as quickly as possible.
The following important items are documented on http://ChristianWebHosting.com/upgrade and should be reviewed:
- EMAIL and WEBMAIL issues – During the change over in servers, some email programs will get confused about which server to contact for email.
- New log in info for the Control Panel and Webmail.
- Server Name Changes – If you use webmail or log into cpanel using the server name (most people who have remote websites) then you’ll need to use the new server name.
- Self managed domains – If you use THIRD PARTY DNS, the IP Address of your website will change and you should be ready to edit the DNS.
- UPGRADING PHP – the new server will only support PHP version 7.4 and 8.1, 8.2, 8.3. We recommend you always use the latest version of PHP.
Thank you for your business and rest assured we are already working hard to make sure that moving hundreds of site to the new server goes as smooth as possible.
Sincerely,
Thomas Leo
Customer Service Manager
ChristianWebHosting.com & Web-Hosting-Inc.com
P.O. Box 638, Cocolalla, ID 83813 USA