Changing Plans (Upgrading/Downgrading)

This document explains how we calculate fees (if any) for changing hosting plans.

Plan Types

There are basically two types of accounts that our system recognizes:

  • Hosting accounts that are billed quarterly or annually. These are called RR (Recurring Revenue) accounts.
  • Hosting accounts and services that are not billed quarterly or annually, typically having one-time fees. These are called NON-RR (Non-Recurring Revenue) accounts.

When processing a plan change, ITS will calculate or not calculate a plan change fee based on RR and NON-RR. Below are explanations of how we handle changes made between and within various RR and NON-RR accounts:

NON-RR to RR

A plan change fee will generally be charged, however upgrading from a RapidDomain plan results in no plan change fee. See Upgrading From RapidDomain for more information.

Example: Moving from a RapidDomain to a Shared Plus plan would result in no setup fee.

RR to a higher RR plan

No plan change fee, except when upgrading to the Windows® Managed Server plan or a Managed Private Server plan.

Example: Moving from a Shared Basic plan to a Shared Plus plan. As a setup fee was paid on the Shared Basic plan, when upgrading to the Shared Plus plan there will be no plan change fee. If you have exceeded your disk space or data transfer limits and wish to upgrade, please also see our policy on upgrading as a result of an overage.

RR to lower RR plan (downgrading)

There is a plan change fee that is based on the setup fee of the plan type to which the account is being downgraded.

RR to NON-RR

There is no plan change fee. These downgrades will be treated like a cancellation. No pro-rated refund will be given.

Example: Moving from a Shared Basic plan to a RapidDomain plan.

Changing Plans

When possible, ITS will apply any unused monthly service fees to the new pro-rated charges on all Plan changes. Your renewal date will always stay the same, except for UNIX-to-Windows or Windows-to-UNIX platform changes (see Platform Changes below).

If you would like to change to a different plan, select the plan that is appropriate for your needs and send an e-mail to ITS Sales. Be sure to include the following information:

  1. List your Name
  2. UserID
  3. Date
  4. Reason for the Plan change
  5. What plan you are changing from and requesting to change to
  6. Indicate if your account currently has FrontPage extensions installed
  7. Special credit request, such as you are changing plans within 30 days of activation, changing plans again within 30 days of your last plan change, or changing plans from a RapidDomain to a full hosting account.

Changing Servers

The following situations will require moving to a different server:

  • Upgrading from a RapidDomain plan
  • Upgrading from a RapidMail plan
  • UNIX-to-Windows or Windows-to-UNIX platform change (see Platform Changes, below)
  • UNIX-to-FreeBSD or Windows-to-FreeBSD platform change (see Platform Changes, below)
  • Upgrading or downgrading your account to or from either a Shared Basic or Shared Plus plan to another type of plan
  • Upgrading or downgrading your account to or from any Shared Signature plan to another type of plan
  • Upgrading or downgrading your account from a Standard Hosting plan to another type of plan

In these cases, please confirm that you have read the following notes carefully so that we may proceed with the upgrade or downgrade of your account.

  1. The transfer you desire will require a move to a different Web server. For a period of about 5 days, we will redirect requests from the old IP address to the new IP address to help ensure a seamless transition for website visitors. Once the new hosting account is moved to the new location, you will need to use the new IP address when updating the site via FTP or FrontPage, or receiving e-mail. Once the propagation period is over you can once again use the domain name to update the website and receive e-mail.

  2. If you are using "hit" counters on your web pages, the counters may reset to zero. Our Technical Support staff can reset them to a specific number, but you need to e-mail us your domain name as well as the counter name(s) and desired settings.

  3. If you are using the secure processing feature (SSL) and you do not have your own encryption certificate, you may need to change the server number when referencing the secure server via the Web or within your HTML documents.  For example:

Old Location: 
https://oldserver.securesites.net/

New Location:
https://newserver.securesites.net/

  1. If you have POP mail accounts, incoming e-mail may be stored in either the old or new hosting account until propagation is complete. During the propagation period, we suggest checking mail using the old and new IP addresses so that no messages are overlooked. When specifying the POP mail server in your mail client, simply replace the domain name with the old IP address and check mail; then change to the new IP address and check mail once again. Once the propagation period has ended, you can change the mail server setting back to the domain name.

  2. If you have a Domain Pointer pointing to your website you will need to reconfigure the pointer so that it refers to the new IP address. This can be done via the Edit Account Information section of the Control Panel of the Domain Pointer.

If you accept the above consequences and e-mail Support to handle the Plan change, please cut and paste these six  points into your e-mail so we can verify that you have read this information and select the plan that is appropriate for your needs.

Upgrading from RapidDomain

Note we cannot establish a redirect when upgrading from or downgrading to a RapidPointer or RapidMail account because these types of accounts share the same IP address.

Platform Changes

The following types of platform changes will result in 24 to 72 hours of site downtime:

  • UNIX-to-Windows and Windows-to-UNIX
  • Windows-to-FreeBSD
  • UNIX-to-FreeBSD

We literally will process a plan change from the original account on the UNIX machine and will allow the system to update. Then we will process another plan change to the appropriate Windows plan type. The time needed to process this change as well as the time for propagation of the new IP is where we arrive at "up to 24 to 72 hours" of site downtime.

Once this change is complete, files must be re-uploaded to the site which has undergone a platform change and Control Panel settings (i.e. e-mail) must be re-established.

Please contact Technical Support before changing platforms.

UNIX-to-Windows Platform Changes

There are two important options to consider when processing a plan change from a UNIX-to-Windows plan. The two options below are not necessary when moving from Windows-to-UNIX, ONLY from UNIX-to-Windows:

Option 1: do NOT automatically move files

If you choose this option, please make sure you save all of the files on the UNIX plan BEFORE you continue with the plan change. When the plan changes to Windows, just upload the files manually with the new IP address. During the UNIX-to-Windows change there will be a server move. Note that this option will have less downtime as you will control the uploading of the files to the new IP.

Option 2: automatically move files

If you choose to have the files moved, make a back up copy of the web site and then complete the plan change. In order for you to have the files moved, they must be un-tarred. If you are unable to untar the files, please send an e-mail message to Technical Support for assistance. Again, an IP change will occur as well as the server move. There will be additional 24-to-72 hours of downtime if you use this option. We think it is best to handle UNIX-to-Windows plan changes by using Option 1.