Hello all,

Just wondering if anyone has had any experience migrating a sharepoint site from WSS 2.0 to WSS 3.0 at a hosted service provider?  I enquired at my service providers and received a couple of different responses.  The first response suggested that the the most reliable means was to simply build a new WSS 3.0 site based on content manually transferred from the WSS 2.0 site; while the second response suggested that while there might be a few hiccups, it "might" be possible to use SharePoint Designer 2007 to do a backup from the WSS 2.0 site account and then "restore" the site into a new WSS 3.0 site account at the hosting service provider.

While I'm thinking that the first route is reliable, it would definitely involve a large amount of work; while the second alternative "might" involve less work, although of course who knows in the end.  In either case though I'm thinking that it makes sense to establish the new WSS 3.0 account at the sharepoint hosting provider, while keeping the old WSS 2.0 account and site live, and then:

1. try the second approach first using SharePoint Designer 2007, keeping both sites running,

2. perform a manual/visual comparison of the new site and see if content came accross ok, and

3. if content largely ok, assess whether I can live with the "look" under WSS 3.0 from this (quick n dirty) approach to site migration, and gradually improve the look over time in the new WSS 3.0 environment.

If my thinking here is unrealistic, please feel free to let me know with any helpful suggestions.  As you probably gather, I'm not an IT Pro, but am  learning to use OOTB functionality in sharepoint for a non-profit that I'm associated with, as well as learning about sharepoint in general for potential use in my workplace.  TIA