How do I change hosting with REW?

[DeeBauer]

I no longer use REW but my website is still hosted there. I just bought a hosting plan with godaddy but I cannot find any login info for my ftp REW hosting. Where do I go to transfer the website myself? Or do they have to do it for me?

Thanks, Dee

[RonnieG]

I don't know who convinced you that was a good idea, but good luck! I have considered that kind of hosting in the past, and what it would take to get there, since I already use GoDaddy for hosting a couple of my non-RE websites. Here is what I came up with:

GoDaddy hosting does not include any kind of CMS that I am aware of, so you will need to first invest in MS Expression Web (which I use for my non-RE sites) or some other website editing program, and/or find a shareware or commercial CMS that you can use to maintain your website. With that, you will be able to build and maintain your website yourself on your PC, then upload it to GoDaddy or whatever web hosting service you may choose in the future.

Unless you have a special contract with REW, and since REW templates are proprietary, you will need to come up with your own original page layout and design, then manually convert each page of your own original content with copy/paste using the REW CMS's HTML view and the HTML view of your new website editor. Expression Web includes a capability to apply a common page layout, including common navigation, to any or all pages of a site. It's not all that hard to learn and use. Allow 15-20 minutes per page to deal with final formatting changes and other tweaking. Unless you find a good CMS that does it for you, you will also need to manually maintain your website navigation links each time you add a page. Don't forget to plan for time to develop and manage contact forms, implement a lead management and drip email system, etc., since those capabilities are not included in any GoDaddy hosting plan I am aware of, and they are REW proprietary back end tools that you only get to use because and when you are a REW hosting client.

Then there is your IDX. Assuming it is a 3rd party IFramed solution, no problem. The IFrame HTML code will already be there in the applicable pages. But if it is a REW custom IDX, you will have proprietary issues.

If you have a problem doing all this yourself, I'm sure you can find a local programmer/consultant willing to charge you for planning and accomplishing the conversion.

[webmaster]

Dee- I am not sure who you are, but if you are a current REW customer, and you are looking to change hosting providers, then that actually has nothing to do with REW. What you need to do is find out what the DNS information is for your new host, login to where you purchased your domain, and change the DNS FROM REW servers to the new servers - this is how you move "away" from REW hosting or any other hosting for that matter.

In terms of FTP - REW does not provide FTP access of any kind to our servers, so you have not misplaced your FTP - you never would have had it.

If you are using an REW website, you can login to your backend and click "backup data" - this will download an sql file to your PC with which you can retrieve all of your content, and have a programmer assist you transfering it to a new website and a new backend.

Ron is correct - all backend REW technology is proprietary, as are all of our template designs.

For our custom sites (We have no custom customers with the last name bauer so this would not apply to you) - it is a little bit different. Custom design affords our custom clients with license for unlimited use of the custom design we create - this means they can use the project we created for their business for the lifetime of their business and can actually host their custom design elsewhere. They would still not be provided with any of our backend, or technology such as IDX - but could implement a new back end system (Drupal or wordpress are options) - The reason for license (We do not transfer copyright) is so that we do not create our own competition. Custom customers are not allowed to resell copies of, or take credit for our work - but they can use their custom design for their entire lifetime.

If you require assistance backing up your content, or anything that is your property - you may contact customer service to assist you, or better yet email your sales person or schedule a call with them, so we may talk you through the process and assist where we can.

Although we hate to see customers leave the REW family we are more than happy to assist you with your transition with advice and if you require high level technical support - we are still more than willing to assist you (Billable time of course) in setting up your new website on a new server.

[webmaster]

One other thing I neglected to mention - we are more than happy to prepare a dvd for you with your content, any graphics you own etc for you - we can mail it out to you, or you can have fed-ex pick it up at REW headquarters. This way you have a dvd / hard copy of content.