Filed under: Features, Blogging, Web services, Microsoft, Yahoo!, AOL
So your web host is retiring: How to back-up and move forward
On Monday, AOL (Weblogs Inc.'s parent company) announced that they are shutting down the AOL Hometown and AOL Journals services. AOL Journals members will be able to migrate to a new service, but AOL Hometown users have been instructed to back-up their files and prepare to go somewhere else.
There have also been reports (but Wikipedia is the source, so keep that in mind) that Yahoo! GeoCties has removed or shut-down some of its UK web servers. With Google killing its Page Creator tool and migrating everyone to Google Sites, the free static web host is a dying breed.
So what can you do if you are an AOL Hometown user (or you use another older service that might be on its last legs)? Read on for tips on backing up your content and publishing options for the future.
Backing up your files
The AOL Hometown announcement page gives some details for backing up your content using the AOL FTP tool, but here are some free software alternatives might better suit your needs, especially if you have a hard time using or locating the AOL tool:
FileZilla - FileZilla works on Linux, Mac and Windows. It is very easy to use and very powerful.
Cyberduck - If you are a Mac user and you want a more Mac-like feel, Cyberduck is free and also very powerful.
FireFTP - FireFTP is a great plugin for Firefox that lets you use FTP right within your browser. It works with Firefox on all platforms.
After you decide on an FTP tool, follow the instructions to connect and download all of your files and images. Download everything that is on that server. It might be a good idea to burn a copy to a CD or DVD for safe-keeping, if the information is important.
Moving Forward
For users who want to move their content to another service, there is good news and bad news. The good news is that today, you can build even more advanced web pages, blogs or photo albums using any number of free services. Aside from free hosted services like Blogger, Live Spaces and WordPress.com that let you create blogs and photo galleries, there are services like Weebly, Wix and Sauropol that let you easily build more "traditional" static web sties. Keep in mind that WordPress also let you create separate "pages" if you want more than just a blog.
The bad news is that there is no easy or automatic way to import your existing HTML content from a service like AOL Hometown or Geocities onto one of these new sites. For image hosting, you can simply re-upload your photos and tag them accordingly. If you have lots of web pages, however, you might want to look at hosting your own content. Take a look at your content, if it is old or in need of a good update, starting over might not be a bad idea. It will certainly be easier than it was before.
Self Hosting
Even though more and more services are becoming web based (e-mail, storage, document collaboration), there is always the chance that the company hosting that content could either fold or decide to discontinue to the service. That's what is happening to AOL Hometown users now. If you want to have full control over your own content, the best option is to pay for web hosting and host the content yourself.
There are dozens of inexpensive webhosts that offer full hosting services for only a few dollars a month. These packages often include a domain name, meaning you don't have to have a URL like http://film-girl.blogspot.com (a blog I have incidentally, never ever used), you can instead have something like christinawarren.com. Hosting yourself also means you can choose to either host the content exactly as it appeared on your old site, or upgrade to the world of dynamic publishing.
Even if you don't want a blog, building a website is much easier and more efficient using a system like WordPress rather than cobbling together the static HTML files. You can more easily update not only the content, but the look of your site, and you can interact with visitors via comments.
By hosting yourself, you could even choose to host your old content the way it appeared before, while creating new content using newer technology.
The caveat with paying for your own hosting is that you are responsible for the upkeep and the maintenance of your page. Most hosts offer tools to help beginners get up and running quickly, but control means control. You deal with the good and the bad. A hosted service, while it offers less options, also means no technical upkeep on the user's part.
Final Thoughts
If you are still using one of the older static hosts of yesteryear, consider backing up and migrating your data now. Self-publishing is bigger than ever, but the old model is dying and the faster you start the transition, the better off you will be.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
diegovh said 5:46PM on 10-02-2008
So, my web hosting (MWS Hosting) is also retiring later this month. Do the readers have any suggestions for cheap, decent hosting? My needs are VERY basic: some 500Mb of space, very basic database apps, and a way to control whether directories display their contents...
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Eli Gundry said 6:04PM on 10-02-2008
I dunno if this will meet your requirements, but I've been using FreeHostia to host my Wordpress blog for free.
http://refrigeratorbox.co.cc
http://www.freehostia.com/
Will said 6:13PM on 10-02-2008
I've found 1and1 to be a great webhost if people are looking for a new one. I don't generate a ton of traffic or anything, but the basic shared hosting works well for personal stuff.
http://www.1and1.com/?k_id=11512437
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sydlawrence said 4:28AM on 10-03-2008
There are 2 problems with 1&1
a) Their servers are in Germany, you should try and get a server based in the country you are in to help with seo
b) As they are in germany they sometimes have problems with german characters
Some of my clients have been using 1&1 and have had servere problems with random (read: German) characters appearing where their should be English characters.
Nate said 8:23PM on 10-02-2008
Couldn't you also build a server, buy a domain, and host your web site at your own home? Though I guess you would also have to have a godly internet provider with supreme upload speeds and all that would cost a ton of cash...
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Daniel said 11:05PM on 10-02-2008
u could, I have done that before, but you better pray your isp doesnt block port 80, because then you have to redirect your ***.com to ***.com:81 which is ok, but looks kinda ugly
Daniel said 11:07PM on 10-02-2008
How sad, the end of an era seriously... so many times browsing those sites of web pages made with frontpage express 2.0 back in my h/p/c/a/v and aol progz days :)
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Linda Williams said 11:21AM on 10-03-2008
I've been using 1 and 1 for years and never had a problem..........
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Canuckster said 10:46AM on 10-03-2008
I've had several accounts with United Hosting (unitedhosting.com and unitedhosting.co.uk) and they are awesome. The cheapest package is $8 bucks per month. At first I wasn't too enthusiastic that they had no phone support — only email tickets — but their response time is fantastic (most answers within an hour; once when I opened an "urgent" ticket they answered in 3 minutes!).
Downtime is extremely rare (like maybe 15 minutes twice a year).
Besides simply looking at their site, you can get a good idea of their kind of support at their forums: www.unitedforums.co.uk.
Heck, they even talked me out of upgrading to a higher package once, all because they felt I didn't needed the extra bandwidth. :) How's that for integrity?
BTW I realize I must sound like a ringer here, being so über-positive in my comments. But google UH yourself and see what others have said.
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whiskey said 4:19AM on 10-05-2008
Of course there are some options you should think in advance, some cheap hosts are not as reliable as you might expect.
In my opinion, Powweb does a great job (http://www.powweb.com/join/index.bml?AffID=565229), with daily backups for your data and unlimited almost anything (except databases, they offer 75). I have been with them for four years and it works great. (They will let you host your videos and such, but since they don't offer ffmpeg, Gallery2 won't be making preview thumbnail images automatically).
You can go and follow two routes:
Installing a CMS or Blogging script (many free out there for you to miss), or you could also manage your website using static pages.
Wordpress is really recommended; Joomla and Drupal are highly impressive; Zikula also look sharp. All of these offer tons of features, plus have active communities that program modules (or plugins, if you will) to make your site even more awesome.
But i actually think that the everyday normal blogger might not want to spend money on the site they run, which is why i also think that most people will not need to have more than a Blogger account and use widgets.
With so many applications now living on the web that can be embedded into your site using widgets (Flickr or PicasaWeb for your pictures, Vimeo or YouTube for your videos, and Google Docs or Thinkfree for your documents). IF (yeah, capitalization needed) you need, you could always get a domain name (they are really cheap).
While you are at it, go ahead and grab a Google Analytics or Woopra account to keep tabs on who visits you (trust me, you want this) and also, if you get a domain where you can control some settings, you could either use Microsoft's Windows Live Domains (to use Hotmail with your domain name) or Google Apps (to use Gmail with your domain name).
Now, if you need to have support for ffmpeg (mostly if you plan to make the next YouTube with scripts like PHPMotion, or if you want to use Gallery2 for videos) then Dreamhost seems like it might be your best bet.
As for upkeep and maintenance, the scripts you install on your site should be periodically upgraded (a patch that may keep the hackers away) and should come with a commenting system that might thwart spamming efforts.
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Hennesseystealth said 12:03PM on 11-11-2008
If you missed the window of opportunity to use the AOL software tools to download your files, you can still do it through the back door:
To get to the data, I needed to use an FTP client like FTP Voyager and do the following:
URL = ftp.hometown.aol.com
default directory = "your AOL screen name"
log in = "your AOL screen name"
password = "your AOL password"
This won't work if you try to use anonymous log in
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Mohamad Zidani said 3:24PM on 11-13-2008
thanks for this article
http://techno4hosting.0lx.net
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Formerly Shadow said 11:43AM on 11-16-2008
I wasn't aware that anybody still used AOL for anything.
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