What's the best way to change host?

[coast]

What is the best way to move from one host to another and keep all your files and maintain your pagerank?

What is an acceptable amount of time for the site to be down when this happens, and what is the best time of day to make the transition to keep the downtime in the middle of the night?

Anything else I should know? Thanks.

[Scandiman]

When changing hosts you are changing name servers and that can take up to 3 days sometimes but is usually in a day or two. So the best thing is to get everything ready at the new host first and then when it is ready you change the name servers at the registrar and wait for it to propagate. This way the site is never down.

[coast]

Thanks, Scandi. Just to make sure I'm clear, I'm supposed to keep everything on the first host company servers, load everything to the second host company servers without deleting anything from the first company, change the nameserver at my registrar, then when the site is live at the second company close the first company. Is that right?

[Scandiman]

Thanks, Scandi. Just to make sure I'm clear, I'm supposed to keep everything on the first host company servers, load everything to the second host company servers without deleting anything from the first company, change the nameserver at my registrar, then when the site is live at the second company close the first company. Is that right?
Exactly. The tricky part is if you are using a database driven site which I haven't dealt with personally.