The Back Alley Archives

Can any of you guys advise me on the best way to move Bill's website domain host? We are currently with Network Solutions. Not only does his email service through them suck, but I just don't think they are the best host for websites. Also, we want to start having a shopping cart so people could buy stuff, pay through Paypal and we can ship them their stuff directly. Currently, consumers are just given Bill's phone number, they call him and arrange payment by phone...pain in the arse. We DO have the ability to accept credit cards through Quicken, but I've been told that Paypal is the easier way to go.

There is a guy I work with (I know, there are probably a hundred guys at work I could ask...but I'm only in the office two days a week, and I really don't socialize that much with them...especially not the tech guys), who does design websites and he's talked to me about Go Daddy and he is the one who gave me the advise on Paypal. Not to sound cheap, but I really don't want to pay all that much just to have my website moved to a different server and add a shopping cart. We don't really need a whole site redesign or anything. I am still going to ask him an approximate cost but if it's more than a few hundred, I just don't wanna do it with him.

If you're curious, here is the website address http://bossportsfl.com/ Any advice you could give us is greatly appreciated. I think we pay something like $15 to $20 a month for it currently and that is okay. But his email REALLY sucks which is what I have the biggest problem with. Plus, I'd like to get him on a Blackberry or some other kind of cell where he can get his email quickly and easily through his phone (business email that is) and I know that this Network Solutions would be a pain with that since it's a pain on the regular ol' internet. I'll give you a couple of examples of why we hate it...it constantly cuts him off and makes him resign in...and then the other night he was trying to send a "Happy New Year" email to all his coaches and it wouldn't let him send an email to more than 100 addresses. Maybe that is because it would be considered SPAM if it were more than a hundred? Maybe there isn't anything we can do about that?

Thanks again in advance.

FYI, this site uses HostGator (http://www.hostgator.com) and I know it has the capability to use a shopping cart, though I've never looked at it to actually figure out how to use it.

I have no personal experience with GoDaddy, but I have heard that their customer support isn't all that great. HostGator's customer support has been excellent. Also, we are only paying $9.95 a month. I don't know anything about moving the entire site over, but it shouldn't be that hard. Also, I don't know about sending mass emails. Something you may want to ask about before you move.

Thanks Doc...I looked at the link and they look good. I called and was on hold and got another call, so I didn't get to speak to anyone. But it looks like they have all the parts that we need. And if you think they've been good to deal with, that's a huge deal to me. Thanks again!

Okay, it looks like I'm still gonna need some help. I've gone ahead and switched over to hostgator.com and they have been very nice on the phone. I've had some issues because they told me to go in and change the DNS server names on Network Solutions and when I did that, Bill couldn't get his email at all. So I switched it back and after a few hours, we got it back. But it looks like I'm going to have to figure out how to save his current emails on our hard drive on to disc and then manually move all the email addresses to the new server. PITA, but I'll do it.

I am still clueless about how to open the store/shopping cart on the site. They have some tutorials but it looks like I have to have a merchant server (which I assume can be Paypal) and then figure out how to add it to the site.

Is anyone good with designing sites and figuring this stuff out? Bill would like to redesign his site to make it more friendly, then I have to figure out how to get it optimized for search engines (which they advised I go to Google and get an account, then use their "webmaster tools".

Again, while they were very nice, they have NO IDEA how clueless I am about all this stuff. I'm going to ask around at work if there is someone that may be able to help I guess.

Ask Todd, Tipmoose or texgator. I hear they're pretty good with 'puters. I have no clue when it comes to setting up a cart or SEO.

What e-mail client we're you using? Outlook Express?

^^^You just hit on one of my big questions!!! With Network Solutions the email just went through them...as far as I know they didn't give you any options on using Outlook or OE...but when I was signing up Bill for his email through HostGator, they did have that option. I had no idea if I should take it or not. Also, now that he has his email at HostGator they offer you three different ways to view it...Squirrel Mail, Cube (something or other) and some other one...Horde, I think. Anyway, that's kind of cool because Bill can use each of them and figure out which one he likes best.

I just don't know what the F*&K I'm doing and it's really pissing me off. I want to be prepared to get Bill a new phone/Blackberry (or iPhone) so he can get his email over his phone...the dudes at HostGator said I didn't need to have his email go through Outlook for that, but I'm clueless.

How did Bill access the e-mail at NetSol? Did he go to a website to get it or did they have an e-mail client installed on his PC that he would use to access his e-mail?

you can set up email through nearly any web-based site (yahoo, hotmail etc) and he can get those on a smart phone. I get both my work email (MS exchange server) and a yahoo address on my phone.

How did Bill access the e-mail at NetSol? Did he go to a website to get it or did they have an e-mail client installed on his PC that he would use to access his e-mail?

He accessed it through NetSol. It was convenient because he could check his email from his parents house, or I could check it on my own computer.

you can set up email through nearly any web-based site (yahoo, hotmail etc) and he can get those on a smart phone. I get both my work email (MS exchange server) and a yahoo address on my phone.

HOW???!!!

1) Setup a GMail account for Bill
2) Change your website to point to the GMail account
3) Access GMail from anywhere (smart phone, PC in China, on the moon)

I have no clue how to do number 2, but I'll try.

Also, if I do this, will he still be able to keep his email address of mailto:?subject=&body=? Because that is printed all over the place and we don't want to change that.

Secondly, Todd if you are willing would you PM me your phone number and when I'm working from home, I'll call you and have you walk me through this? I know it's simple but I always end up having issues or not finding the right thing to do on each of the websites. Pretty please?

I have no clue how to do number 2, but I'll try.

I don't know how to explain that to you.

LOL ihate...fortunately the number 2 you're thinking of is NO problem for me at this point...lots of fiber!

Okay, I got my gmail account. Went to Network Solutions hoping I could get them to point to this address but could only find the process for having them sent to Outlook or some other type of email thingy on your computer.

Have not tried it with HostGator yet, but will. I was hoping if I could get it to point to Gmail, I could export his address book (at least) so it would be there in Gmail for him, but so far it doesn't look like I'm gonna be able to do that.

So you have your website: bossportsfl.com hosted by NetSol. They also handle the e-mail too correct? I didn't realize you got e-mail addresses on that domain also. What you should probably do is have the NetSol e-mails delivered to Outlook/Outlook Express on your home PC so you could have those and then when you move your bossportsfl domain over to HostGator, the mail server registration records will also change to them.

That is what I was thinking...I have to double check because we don't use the Outlook at all on Bill's computer (mine is all my Disney stuff) and I know we have an email address through road runner although I'm not sure what it is, so I'm worried I'd send everything from NetSol and then not be able to get into Outlook to access it. But anyway, I did notice on HostGator where you can "forward" all your emails to somewhere else...but they will still live on HostGator's webmail too. Is that what I would use to forward Bill's email's? Send them to gmail? But would I need to do that if I'm using webmail anyway?

I didn't mind opening a gmail account under the business name because I wanted to use their webmaster stuff and learn how to optimize his search, but I'm wondering if I need it for his email. I'm so CONFUSED!!!

Todd, got your message but I think I've got some it worked out. I got all of his current emails AND address book forwarded to his gmail account. I also got both the Network Solutions mail AND the HostGator email account to forward all emails to the gmail account so he will get them one way or the other. Whew.

Now I have to figure out how to alphabatize his gmail contacts by LAST name instead of first name...seems easy enough, but I haven't figured that out yet.

Also, the next part of this process is figuring out how to redesign his website and add a shopping cart for payments. THAT is going to be a whole other challenge.

A brave one you are for taking this on.

As proof that everything I touch turns to poop...Gmail is having technical difficulties today and we keep getting kicked off as I try to change all his contacts to last name first (so it will alphabatize the right way). Oh joy.

Sorry for your issues with Gmail. I rarely have any issues with them. Sounds like you're on the right track though.

Got the gmail thing all worked out. One quick question and then I'll move on to my next steps. When I get a Blackberry or smart phone for him and we get it hooked up to his gmail account, will he be able to make calls from his gmail address book? I know with my Blackberry, it will look up the phone numbers in my Outlook address book to make calls. OR will I still need to transfer all the phone numbers from his phone to the new phone? If we can just use the gmail address book, then I will start adding all the necessary phone numbers to his gmail contacts list.

Next step is trying to do some updates to his site. Not sure how to do that with HostGator and unfortunatately, I don't understand some of the terminology on their site that may be second nature to you tech types, but I just don't know what they mean. Anyway, I registered with Google's Webmaster Tools to hopefully help get his site higher on search lists but they gave me a meta tag to insert into the header on his site and I cannot figure out how to do anything on his site at this point. Looks like the poor HG customer service reps are going to rue the day that they transferred out site...I'm going to be on the phone with them A LOT! LOL

Do you guys think $850 is a decent price to develop a website? He's doing it from start to finish including SEO and meta tags, etc.