How To Move To A New Cyber Address

By: Rob Reilly
Monday, August 25, 2003 10:10:08 AM EST
URL: http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/tutorials/4972/1/

Why Switch?

Have you switched your broadband Internet Service Provider lately? Most people that I've talked to said that the process is a royal pain, especially if you've been with the same provider for quite a while.

I recently went through the exercise because, I needed dial-up access while on the road. My former Internet service provider (ISP) was very happy to help me get dial-up working on my Windows laptop. Only problem, I'm a die-hard Linux user, don't and won't own a Windows laptop and the response on the help line was always the same.

"Oh, we don't support Linux."

After much research and spinning of wheels I concluded that you could only get connected via their funky Windows dial up script and mysterious dial strings. All I wanted to do was put my user name, password, and phone number in KPPP and dial into the network from a phone line. If I ever could have connected I could have used 10 "free" hours of dial-up per month, after which $0.99 per hour would have been charged for additional time. Such a deal.

Needless to say, I'm a happy broadband/dial-up camper now, since I moved over to Earthlink. Their broadband service runs on the same cable modem as my old broadband provider. My upload and download bandwidth is great. I also have unlimited dial-up access with local numbers all over the country, that simply works, with KPPP on my Linux laptop.

The point is that I don't want to rant about my old ISP or sell you on my new one. Rather, I wanted to walk you through the process of switching ISP's, in case you happen to "find a better deal." With lots of things to overlook, bringing visibility to the process and minimizing the pain of changing providers is what this story is all about.

Eight Points On Planning The Switch

As I plan and execute a project, I like to stuff all my papers and notes in a manila folder. You could do the same with a binder or a computer directory. By saving all of my planning lists, contact information and notes, in one place, it makes it easy to see where the train might have jumped the tracks, on a project. Also, having a collection of project folders, gives me a ready supply of material, for new LinuxPlanet stories.

  • Make a list of reasons why you want to switch ISP's. This will keep your thinking straight and let you step back for a moment and focus on the real reasons for dumping your old provider and going with a new one. The decision to change should not be taken lightly, because, as you will see, switching to a new provider affects much of your Internet/Web related life.
  • If you have a registered domain name, much of your moving problem can be written off. You'll have to reconfigure some server addresses to point to new places. But, if you are changing jobs or starting up a new business unit under a new domain, you'll have to go through the logistics spelled out in this article. For personal broadband account users, a new domain name might even be in order, if you don't already have one. Being "ISP independent" is one valid reason for having a domain name in the first place and could save you a lot of work in the future.
  • Make a list of tasks and items of concern. Plan to spend some time trying to write down all the things that have to be done in order to move from one provider to another. Here are some examples: How do I set up my email using my new provider? How do I terminate my old service arrangement? I know I need to move my web pages... how will I do that?

  • Make a list of who needs to know the new addresses. This is pretty much a no-brainer. But is it. When you do get a new email address, do you really want everyone in the world to know about your new home? Believe it or not spam does take some time to find you. One way to eliminate a bunch of spam is to get a new email address. I was getting about 25 spam messages a day. Now, after about a month, I get one or two. Of course, as soon as my new email shows up in this article and Google updates its database with my new information, I'll be right back up there.

    This is a great opportunity to categorize your contact list as well. My contact list is what you would call "distributed." I have contacts on a PDA, in JPilot, in Mozilla mail and in seemingly random text files. Take a little time and bring all your email and contact lists together, maybe sorting as you go into groups to keep and groups to dump. Some manual consolidation will probably be needed. You might even set up LDAP or a contact manager to help keep your contacts straight after your move. If you are crunched for time, at least make a list of the important people that will need to know your new email and web address. You can later bundle all those addresses up into a single email and notify everyone at once.

  • Pick the date to switch. The date will be influenced by factors like the ISP billing cycles, your personal/company workload, holidays and how bad you need a "better deal." There really is no way to completely eliminate a small amount of down time when you switch. The trick is to minimize the disruption to yourself or your small business.
  • Gather organizational info from both providers. Most Linux users will really not need much technical help when moving from one service to another. What you might need is help with passwords, server names or billing information. Make sure you write down or print off both providers' contact web pages before you make the switch. If you run into troubles you'll need to know who to call.
  • Gather server, password, etc information needed to set up the new service. At the very least, you'll need to point your mail client at a new mail server and move your web site to a new server. You should record the email installation instructions, web creation pages and any other related technical information needed to get up and going on the new provider.
  • How will you let everyone know. The process of telling all your contacts about your new address may be as simple as a form letter with a big list of recipients. Or, it could involve updating all your marketing/sales literature to reflect your new web address and email. If your small company is moving onto a new domain name, don't forget that everyone in your organization will have to let their respective friends and contacts know how to get in touch with them. Productivity and downtime can escalate without due diligence, planning and coordination.

    If you have a strong presence in the various search engines, you should be aware that your new email and web addresses will not propagate through their databases for some period of time. Perhaps, your old ISP may have an email and web page forwarding service that you can use when the transition happens. Or, if you've decided on your new provider, why not put your new email and URL on your old web pages before it goes bye bye.

Getting Ready For The Move

Some tasks can be done before you actually transfer from your old ISP to the new one. Here is a short list:

  • Set up your new email address and server names in your mail client. Mozilla, which is what I use, let's you configure multiple email accounts. If you have the new ISP's information why not get the job done ahead of time?
  • Update your web site. First thing you should do is make a complete backup of your current (old) web site. Copy the files down with something like gftp and burn them on a CD. Next, update your pages to reflect your new web site URL and email addresses. Now copy your updated pages to your OLD web site address. As you will recall, your old provider may leave your pages up on their servers for some period of time even after your account is closed. Search engine spiders will crawl your old site, so why not make sure they gather your new data.
  • Download and backup your email messages. You probably do that on a regular basis anyway, don't you? Don't forget that most ISPs give you the option of keeping your email on their servers. If you only use Webmail, you most certainly need to collect your messages before you turn off the old account. If you have 5 MB of mail messages on your old ISP's server, it will take a little while to download everything, so you probably don't want to put this job off until the last minute.
  • Redesign your business cards, letterhead, signature files, brochures, sales/marketing material, etc. with your new email and URL. At this point you may not have the new email or URL yet. You never know if another user with your new ISP has the username that you want to use. Finishing this job may have to wait until moving day.

Moving Day

When the fateful moving day comes, it's time to smile and just get on with the job. If you've planned well and tried to cover all the contingencies, it really will be pretty easy. Don't agonize about the change, just work your way through your lists.

  • Call your old provider and tell them that you are canceling service. They may have to schedule time for a tech to remove the old cable/dsl modem.
  • Call your new provider and tell them that you are ready to begin service. They may have to schedule a tech to visit to install a new cable/dsl modem. In my case, Earthlink was able to use my old ISP/cable provider's modem and cable. So, all that was necessary was sending a command to my modem and tell it to point to a different server.
  • Get your domain name straightened away. If you registered for a new domain name it will have to be bound to your IP address. The group that you went through to get registered can help. If you have a dynamic IP address, a company called DNS2Go by Deerfield.com can provide a domain name that works even if your IP changes. If you are just going through Earthlink or other provider with a personal account, you would use the provider's domain name.
  • Test out your new broadband connection. Be aware that there may be a bit of a time lag between when you start your new service and when it actually works. Now is also a good time to configure your dial-up scripts and modem for your new service. Give the modem a try, just to make sure you can get connected via the phone line. My old 300 MHz. PII laptop, with PCMCIA modem and SuSE Linux 8.0 Pro works fine with KPPP and Earthlink dial-up numbers.
  • Point your mail client to the new mail servers. I use Mozilla as my mail client. I recommend moving any messages in your inbox and sent folders to new folders like "inbox07302003" and "sent07302003," down in your Local folders. The reason I use this file naming convention is that it helps me to remember that my old email address ended on that date. All the new email will come in through the new inbox for my new mail account.
  • Transfer your newly updated web pages to your new web server. I don't have a very complicated web site, so I just use gftp with the new web server address, username, and password. After you set up gftp, it's all ready to go when you want to make improvements and changes to your new site. Most personal web sites don't have anything more complicated than a simple username and password for update access. Also, the information generally isn't encrypted either. Obviously, if you are a small business or corporate user managing a complicated site with PHP, databases and so on, your security needs will be different. Also, be sure to check the new URL to make sure all your web pages are there and everything works right.
  • Visit the printer. Now is the time to finish up redesigning your business cards, letterhead, brochures, marketing/sales material, then put in your order with the printer.
  • Update your email signature files and send out an announcement email to your contacts so they know that you've moved in cyberspace.
  • Mail/hand out an announcement. Your friends, clients and customers will be happy to know about your new cyber address. If you are a businessman or consultant, a note about your new web site is a great opportunity to help build your relationship with your clients and customers. There are also advantages to not sending your new email and URL to someone, such as a vendor, that ships you an email every day trying to sell something that you don't want.

Lesson Learned

Even after planning and thinking about my move for a couple of weeks, I still overlooked a couple of things.

  • Lesson One: Don't forget your spouse's email account. Or, your business partner, for that matter. Since my mail client just pointed to my old ISP's mail server, when the service was turned off, so was my access to any outstanding mail. Oops... my wife's access ended as well. To make matters worse, we were out of town for about a week and she hadn't checked her mail before I switched to Earthlink. She lost about 25 email messages. Fortunately, she only checks her mail about once a week and doesn't get that much traffic. Needless to say, if your wife or business partners are major email users, learn from my mistake and make sure you download everything (don't forget your kids', dog's, cat's, turtle's, etc. accounts) before you flip the switch.
  • Lesson Two: I could have done a better job at updating my old web pages. You might even want to redesign your home page to tell people that you are moving to a new web page, if you know the new URL. Also, any search engine spider that crawls around on your old site could then update their databases, with your new info. It might cut down on the amount of time it takes to get your new information out on the Web and into search engines. I checked my old site and after a month, it's still there. Better take advantage of the opportunity before you lose access.

Moving to a new ISP is never a completely smooth operation. Making checklists and trying to think about all the contingencies, ahead of time, can go a long way toward an easy transition. It's hard to get around some level of disruption, but it surely doesn't need to stop your business or personal life from functioning. Also, investigate that new custom domain name and cut down on the problem next time.

I'm happy with my new service. It's convenient for me to have broadband in the comfort of my own home and unlimited dial-up when on the road. Who would have ever thought I would actually want unlimited dial-up access again. I think it will continue to be the case until we get ubiquitous broadband wired and wireless connectivity. Just like Open Source and Linux it's nice to finally have practical choices with your Internet providers.

Finally, remember that moving in cyberspace is just like moving in the physical world. It brings new adventures and new opportunities.

Rob Reilly (aka: "Dr. Torque") is a professional writer and senior technology consultant, whose work includes Linux, business systems integration, R&D and occasional hot rodding excursions. He frequently writes and speaks about these and other topics. He has 17 years experience in the high technology, manufacturing and the utilities industries. He is always 'on-the-lookout' for stories and projects that focus on Linux, business and the cutting edge. Send him a note or visit his relocated web site at http://home.earthlink.net/~robreilly.

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