Moving large web site to another server...

[Froggyman]

I am in the process of moving my main site to a new server. I'm going to love this when I'm done- it'll take me three months to figure out all the tools (or toys) it came with.

I copied the entire root directory of the old server onto my hard drive. I will now configure, clean up, and transfer those files to my new server within the next few hours. This is my first major move and I am wondering what others experiences are. I don't want to notify Internic of the change (I'm under no pressure) until I know what to expect.

Will there be a period of time where the site will be completely unaccessible ( Internic :() to the public even if the actual site is loaded and primed for traffic? Also, how will the search engines react to the move and my site's new (and dedicated :)) IP.

Thanks for your input.

[GWJ]

There might be a delay on all parts of the world hiting the new server due to zone files being pushed out but your old server (if you leave it up) will get the hits from the non updated zones. Last time I moved my old IP log files showed hits for around 36 hours but I requested the transfer to start on a Friday late afternoon as my site drops in hits on the weekend.

Brian

[toolman]

Last week I secured a domain on Friday at 3:00PM, set up the server at 3:10 and was live and resolving by 12:00 on Saturday. That was the exception. Usually it takes a couple of days for the zone files to filter through everywhere.

A dedicated IP is great when your domain doesn't resolve...otherwise your host should provide a path to your site on their server.

Dedicated IP's are going to be more and more scarce as more hosts go to name based domains. I haven't noticed any difference one way or the other with the SE's.

[Froggyman]

Heres what my host said (not arguing with you). Discuss amongst yourselves.

Dedicated IP Address
All hosting accounts come with their own ip address. Many hosts offer 'fake virtual' domain accounts, which means they fool most browsers into redirecting themselves to the correct directory on the server. This method only works with certain browsers, is not full featured and is not a professional solution.

Well, this may be true for the older browsers but not Mozilla 3.0 and up. But then again a spider is nothing more than a stripped down browser which makes me think there might be a SE advantage in some cases (not all). I hear from others that Lycos and Excite prefer dedicated IP's.

Other Advantages
[ie-host.com...] (not my host)

Not sure what you mean about the path to the site but the domain name and IP address are both resolvable.

>>>Dedicated IP's are going to be more and more scarce as more hosts go to name based domains<<<

Actually, they are running out of IP numbers.