Couch Blogging

To change the City in your Weather Screenlet, you simply have to rightclick on the Screenlet and click on Zip Code. For US Cities, simply enter the Zip Code of the City.

But for international Cities, the Postal Code does not work.

To enter the right code go tohttp://weather.yahoo.com and find the City you’re looking for.

You find the Code in the Url of the City. In this example I used Rarotanga on the Cook Islands:

http://weather.yahoo.com/Rarotonga-Cook-Islands/CWXX0001/forecast.html

After the name of the City, you find the code you need. Enter this code into the Zip Code field and voila, there it is.

If you want to avoid to land on one of those malicious virus invected Websites, you should install the WOT Plugin for Mozilla Firefox.

Millions of People around the Globe are using it already. I installed it a few days ago and it does a great job.

How to change your Web Hosting Service and move your Websites including Databases to a new Server.

Every once in a while, it is necessary to change your Web Hosting Provider.  This could be for several reasons. Most of the time it is because the Server where your Sites are hosted has a bad performance and Pages are loading very slow. This is the reason why I just changed my Web Hoster. Everything went smooth and it took less than 2 hours.

Of course it really depends on how large your Sites are. So these are the Steps you have to follow.

1.) Find a good Webhoster and Sign up for any of their Plans. I just switched to Hostgator and so far I’m very pleased with the Server Speed.

2.) Once you have signed up you will get your login Information. Many Hosters use cPanel as their Web Hosting Control Panel and it’s the one I prefer. I always try to find a Hoster who is using cPanel. Now use your favorite ftp Client and download everything that is in the /public_html/ or /public_html/yourwebsite.com/ folder of you old Web Hoster.

This might take a while. You can move on to step 3 while everything is still downloading.

3.) You have to export your old Database. You can either download your Database in cpanel or you access phpmyadmin. The Path for phpmyadmin is usually http://yourwebsite.com:2082/3rdparty/phpMyAdmin/index.php

Now click on the “Export” Tab. Usually you don’t have to change any of the settings, but at the bottom you should mark “Save as file” and choose Compression: zipped or gzipped. Then click on go and the download should start.

4.) You should have received the Url from your new Webhoster to access your cpanel and temporary Website.

This might be something like http://blabla.yourwebhost.com/cpanel and blabla.yourwebhost.com/~youraccount

Log into cpanel and click on “Mysql Databases”. Create a new Database. The name could be anything you want.

Then create a new User and then Add the new user to the new Database.

5.) After this is done go back to the Main Cpanel Window and click on phpmyadmin.

Choose the Database you just created and click on the “Import” Tab to import the Database. After this is done you’re almost done.

6.) Your Download from the old host should have finished by now. Open the configuration File with your favorite Text Editor.

For example:

Joomla: configuration.php

Wordpress: wp-config.php

phpbb: config.php

No matter which CMS, Forum, or Blogging Software you use, you have to make some changes in the Configuration File.

Look for the Database Name, Database User and Database Password. These have to be changed. You probably also have to change the absolute path (home/public_html/youraccount/yourwebsite).

7.) Now upload all your files to your Files to your new Host.

8.) Now check if everything is working, by going to blabla.yourwebhost.com/~youraccount. If everything is ok go to the next step.

9.) Log into your Registrar where you registered your Domain Name. This could be either your new Webhost or your old registrar. I personally use a different Company as my Registrar. Change the Nameserver to the ones you got from your new Webhost. After a few hours your Domain will point to your new Webhosts Server and you’re done !!!

If you want to switch your Blogging Software, but want to keep your old Postings, you can do it by moving your old files to another Folder and installing the new Software in the main directory. That’s what I just did.

1.) Use your favorite ftp Client and log into your Webhosts ftp area. I personally prefer FileZilla.

2.) Create a new Folder. I called it “old”

3.) Move all files from your Mainfolder into your new created folder. I can use drag n drop with Filezilla. If your ftp Client doesn’t allow drag n drop, you have to download everything and then upload it again to the new folder.

4.) open the configuration.php file with your favorite editor

5.) Adjust the following lines:

$mosConfig_absolute_path = ‘/home/youraccount/public_html/yourwebsite.com/old’;

$mosConfig_cachepath = ‘/home/youraccount/public_html/yourwebsite.com/old/cache’;

$mosConfig_live_site = ‘http://yourwebsite.com/old’;

6.) Upload the new configuration.php

7.) Once that is done enter the new Url into your Browser (www.yoursite.com/old).

Everything should be working now. Now simply install your new Blogging Software in your Main Directory.

As you can see, I’ve just switched from Joomla to Wordpress. Actually, I really like Joomla and it’s my favourite CMS, but for blogging it is just a little too complicated.

So I’ve decided to switch to Wordpress.  If you want to read any of my old Joomla Posts you can do it here.