3
I upgraded on of my site from xoops 2.3.3b to 2.4.4 via cpannel and it was an automated upgrade by my hosting company(goDaddy). so it may be worth checking with your hosting company if they can upgrade for you.
You should test all your module on the new version on a test environment first before you upgrade your production host.
Deepak
A member of www.AquariumHomeCare.com