Shopping for web host

[Bubba Grizz]

I am not currently happy with my web hosting service (Powweb) and I would really like to switch but I am ignorant as to how to do this and what to look out for.
My current setup:
I host a simple flash web site. Not overly large, about a meg in size.
I also host a phpbb2 board. This is what I am most worried about.
I also have my email going through the site.

One of my main concerns is would it be easier to just host these on my own server at home? I am not sure about what is needed as far as hosting the message board there as I am not that great with sql and such.

How hard it is to switch to a new provider and get my stuff moved over? Would a new site support my forums? Can I keep the domain name that I purchased?

I guess I am just confused over the entire process. Could someone please enlighten me? Or at least point me to a good tutorial.

[Zaelath]

You can keep all your stuff, and the new host should be able to host your old message board. It's just a matter of how tedious the interface on the hosts are to export and import you mysql databases, etc.

Really you want some overlap between new and old to iron out issues before you change the DNS.

Which brings us to the domain, the heirarchy is like this:

Domain Name => Domain Name Server => IP address

If you want to move the web site, you have to change the IP address the name of the web site points to. Now, if your "host" registered the domain for you and hosts the DNS, you need to make sure you have the keys to the domain and a suitable DNS server to point it at.

For example you can go to the whois gateway at: http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jsp

Search for your domain name, then ignoring all the adds for new related domains, scroll down to the bits you want: Who owns the domain (the registrant), who the contacts are (that can change details), what the domain name servers are.

If your email is listed somewhere there it's usually not a great problem to recover the keys to the domain etc, once you work out where it's registered.

Once you have the keys you can point the domain to a new DNS and put whatever DNS records you want on it.

There's no doubt some intricacies not covered in my somewhat rambling explanation, but if I knew what your domain was I could be more specific...

[Boogahz]

I used the suggestions in this thread and went with Dreamhost. It has been a LONG time since I had my own site going, so I am taking it slow getting everything how I want it. The "yellow" something code may not be as good as it was before (basically get a year for around 20 bucks with it) since they changed the referral process a bit. Let me know if you need one, and I will set something up for a maximum reward to you rather than me.

[Sargeras]

I went with Dreamhost and I love it, but my only complaint is there junk mail filter sucks and the configuration of it is extremely confusing.

[Syenye]

what are you doing with it? i personally have dreamhost, and i'm not a huge fan... they seem to have gone way downhill since i first signed up with them. i blame all the kids who are trying to play with ruby on rails and failing miserably, but that's a problem you'll run into with any shared host. if you do go with dreamhost, http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages ... PromoCodes

i signed my brother's business up with LiquidWeb a few months ago. Their support has been great, and response is pretty quick even outside of business hours. availability and speed were the two things i had been most concerned with... previously they had been with WestHost, and the service/availability wasn't so great.

you should also check out Google Apps for your domain. i believe it's free and you get the gmail-style interface and their spam filter.