Migration Information
All the info on migrating your account from Adaptive Hosting Solutions to Host Orlando in one place.

We've brought Host Orlando back with new plans, new prices, and more features.

Beginning in mid-July, current Adaptive Hosting Solutions (AHS) customers will need to migrate their hosting to our new Host Orlando system. This is your one-stop source of information on the migration process.

For the long version, see this post at the new Host Orlando blog. For the short(er) version, read on...

As the hosting industry has changed, we've been waiting for some of the new technologies and systems to get to the right combination of reliability, ease-of-use, and affordability that we need to be able to offer them to our customers. Since January, we've been working on a new hosting system, new account control panel, new hosting control panel, and plan and pricing changes. This system will give all our customers the latest technology that's easy to use and, in most cases, at a lower price than our current AHS offerings.

This new system follows the "cloud hosting" model which allows us--and our customers--to scale with growth. Also, this type of system gives us redundancy when things go wrong by reducing single points of failure and using load balancing and clustering technologies to serve web and email requests quickly and reliably with minimal downtime.

Continue to the next section: What's New

On the Host Orlando system, we've added features and changed our plans and pricing. Here are the major changes you'll see.

General

  • Lower prices for web hosting plans (details)
  • Simplified hosting plans
  • Increased storage limits
  • Total account storage limit includes web, FTP, and email storage
  • Increased data transfer limits
  • 24/7 phone and live chat support for web and email hosting (email support for other products and services such as domain names, SSL certificates, and ProductCart)
  • New account control panel, hosting control panel, and ordering system
  • New terms of service (details)
  • Quarterly billing by credit card/PayPal will now be done monthly and quarterly billing by check will be done annually
  • New Rewards Program gives you a percentage of your friends' future invoices as an account credit when you refer them to us

Email Features

  • Up to 1GB storage per account (subject to your plan's total storage limit)
  • Better Webmail (screenshots)
  • Basic spam filtering included in all accounts
  • Automatic email account setup program for Windows email clients
  • SSL for POP/IMAP/SMTP

Web Features

  • Run Windows and Linux technologies (ASP, ASP.NET, PHP, MySQL, MS SQL, etc.) on the same site
  • PHP4, PHP5 and MySQL4, MySQL5
  • ASP.NET Framework 3.5 on IIS 7
  • MS SQL Server 2005 with web-based administration (including backup and restore)

Important Changes

While we've been able to add more to your hosting account and reduce prices, there are some changes that had to be made that may impact the way you use your account. For most all of our customers these won't be an issue.

  • New Policies and Terms of Service. By migrating your account, you agree to abide by our new policies.
  • Upon cancellation of your plan/account you will not be refunded any remaining balance. This is due to the switch to monthly billing by credit card/PayPal and we encourage our existing customers paying by check to switch to monthly billing by credit card/PayPal.
  • FrontPage Extensions are not offered. You can still use FrontPage to publish your site via FTP, but FrontPage features that require the extensions will not work on your site (details).
  • Secure Folders (through the Helm control panel for AHS Windows hosting plans) are no longer supported.
  • Subdomains must now be set up as separate hosting plans and can no longer be included in the plan for the main domain.
  • The email system does not support "store and forward" (where the email is delivered to the account as well as forwarded to another account)--an account either receives mail or forwards it.
  • ASP.NET apps need to be manually reloaded using the hosting control panel when changes are made to the app.
  • ASP and ASP.NET scripts cannot access files outside the web site root. To prevent files from being accessible via the web but available to your scripts, put then in a directory named "App_Data" in the root of your web site.
  • No shell access (should be available Q3 2008).
  • Can't use an email alias to pipe output to a script
  • .htaccess files need to have RewriteBase set to work correctly (details)
  • Code for detecting secure (SSL) connections for ASP/ASP.NET pages will need to be changed (details).
  • $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] needs to be set in your PHP scripts or in a .htaccess using auto_prepend_file if you use this variable in your scripts (details)

Continue to the next section: Timeline

Scheduling Overview

The dates below are subject to change and likely will change as the migrations progress. Please check back for the latest dates.

We will be doing migrations in phases determined by the hosting plan you are on. We will contact you prior to the start of your migration phase to remind you of the upcoming migration.

During your migration phase you will be emailed your migration information which will include your new account information and migration details. You will have seven days to complete your migration before being billed for the new system. You must complete your migration by the "All Migrations Completed" date below.

If you would like to take advantage of the new system and pricing sooner than your scheduled phase, please submit a support request and we'll be happy to get you started as soon as you'd like.

Timeline:

Begin Migrations for Windows Hosting Customers With MS SQL Server Databases - 7/21/08

Starting 7/21 we will begin migrating customers on our Windows hosting plans that are using MS SQL databases.

Begin Migrations for All Other Hosting Customers - 7/28/08

Starting 7/28 we will begin migrating all remaining hosting customers.

Migration Deadline for Windows w/SQL Hosting Customers - 8/25/08

All Windows w/SQL hosting customers must have their migrations completed by 8/25/08. After that date we will be turning off our SQL server.

Migration Deadline for all Customers - 9/30/08

All migrations will be completed by 9/30/08. After that date we will be turning off our Windows and Linux hosting servers for AHS.

Continue to the next section: Checklists

Choose the checklist based on the type of hosting plan you are on with AHS:

The migration checklists can also be found in our new Downloads section.

Continue to the next section: FAQs

Over the past few months we have been working with a few of our current AHS customers to migrate them to the new Host Orlando system. Here's some of the questions that have come up:

What will I need to do to migrate?

Take a look at the Checklists section and download the checklist for your current type of hosting plan with AHS. This will give you details on the steps that need to be taken as well as what we'll take care of for you by default. We can do as much or as little of the migration as you want us to and let you handle the rest.

I'm not a technical person, can you help me do the migration?

Technical or not, we're here to help you as much or as little as you'd like. If you want us to do the migration for you and just tell you when we're ready to make the change for you to go live, we'll be more than happy to do it.

How long will it take me to migrate?

This depends on what features your hosting plan uses, however, 1-3 hours is a good rough estimate. Customers with static web sites or email only hosting will have the least amount of work to do. If your site uses PHP, ASP, or ASP.NET and/or accesses a database, then there is a bit more involved in making code changes and testing.

What plan will I be put on?

We will try to match the new Host Orlando plan to the closest match to the AHS plan you were on. If you want to change this at any time, just let us know.

What happens to the remaining balance on my hosting plan with AHS?

When we migrate your account, we will add a credit to your Host Orlando account for the dollar amount of the remaining balance on your AHS account. This will be used against your first invoice and, depending on the amount of the credit and your new hosting plan, successive invoices.

What happens to any unpaid invoices I have?

When we set up your account for migration, we will create an invoice in the Host Orlando billing system for any unpaid invoice you currently have in the AHS billing system and void the AHS invoice. You will be able to pay the invoice using the new Host Orlando billing system. NOTE: If your outstanding invoices are not paid prior to the migration end date, your account will be canceled and permanently deleted from our systems.

When will I start being billed through Host Orlando?

When we set up your account for migration, we will add it to the Host Orlando billing system, credit your AHS account balance to it, and then set the billing date for your Host Orlando account to seven days later. This gives you free service for one week during the migration process, which should be plenty of time to complete your migration. Once the billing start date is reached, you will be billed on a prorated basis for the remainder of the month and, if it is the 15th of the month or later, for the following month. Any account credit from AHS will be used for this and if there is any credit remaining for your next renewal invoice. Hosting accounts will be renewed on the first day of each month.

If I complete my migration within a week, do I win a prize?

To give you some incentive to complete this quickly and also to say "thanks" for taking the time to do the migration, we will be offering one of the following to customers that complete their migration within seven days:

  • A credit equal to one month of free hosting for each plan you migrate
  • A free one year domain renewal for one domain if your domain is registered through us
  • A free domain transfer ($15 value) for one domain if you want to transfer your domain to us, which also adds one year to the current expiration

Do I have to complete my migration by the end of the migration phase?

Once the migration process is started for your account, we would like to get it completed as soon as possible and will be available to help in any way you need to get this done. You have until the migration end date to complete your migration. At that time, we will be shutting down the current AHS system.

Why is my billing frequency changing?

To better meet our customer's needs as well as simplify out billing, we are moving all accounts paid by credit card or PayPal to monthly billing and all quarterly check payments (not common) to annual payment. Also, we will be asking those customers paying by check (not common) to change to credit card or PayPal billing.

Continue to the next section: Post Migration

After you have gone live on the new system, the following will help you get the most out of your account.

Screencasts

These links will load a Flash video in a modal window. Click anywhere outside the video or press Esc to close it. If you have problems viewing the videos, please try this link to our videos on blip.tv where you can also view them in Quicktime format.

New Service Links

Back to the start: Overview