Keep your Friends Close, Keep your Passwords Closer

Posted by Peter F on May 5 2006 in . There are no comments yet. Add yours!

I just want to send out a little advice to all individuals/companies out there that have websites produced for them. I have seen this same reoccurring issue over and over again in my short time producing websites:

Know and Keep your Hosting Username and Password

I understand that when you have a company or individual producing your website you want them to take care of everything, send you the bill and away you go??? however??? big however??? it is your site??? be in control of it.

I say this for many reasons???

If you have somebody else purchase your domain name ??? it is under their visa information and when you want that site renewed, it is up to them to do so. They own your url and if your url becomes worth something or somebody offers them money for it ??? they are legally at liberty to do so.

If you run into issues with the company or individual and want somebody else to produce your site??? you do not have access to your url or hosting if you do not have the username and password

Offices catch on fire, people get hit by cars??? so many things out of your control can happen that you are at the mercy of.

This is probably an odd reason to some??? but very important. When the day comes where you need to contact that individual or company for your username and password it may take them a long time to and it over to you. I know what your thinking??? it???s a 2 second thing. However, when you are working on numerous projects and have an over full plate ??? as most web designers and developers do ??? the brain space to find a password may seem like a insurmountable feet.

It is possible to transfer a url and hosting from an individual to another??? both parties need to contact the hosting company and agree to do so, I suggest if you don’t have your info… you contact who does and transfer it over.

So here it is??? I?m telling you this as a partner in a web design company? purchase your own url and hosting under your visa number (or have somebody else purchase it under your visa number) and once the site is up and running and the final bill is paid ??? change your username and password and keep it safe until the next time you need help on your site.
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