How to transfer a domain name.

There are many reasons why anyone might want to move a domain name www.mydomainame.com from one registrar to another or even move it between different accounts or acount holders at the same registrar company.

A Domain name transfer is the process of changing the designated registrar of a domain name. ICANN has defined a Policy on Transfer of Registrations between Registrars[1] The usual process of a domain name transfer is:

First... some definitions for this short process.

A Domain Name registrar: The initial company that had authority to issue and sell domain names was Network Solutions. Since 1999 other companies have been allowed to sell domain names with the largest being GoDaddy followed by eNom and Tucows.

whois: A service of Network Solutions and other registrars that reveals the owner of any domain name, the email address of record, and the mailing address of the record holder (if the domain name is not protected).

Auth Code: An authentication code that is required for transfer of a domain name from one registrar (or account) to another registrar (or another account under the same registrar). Having the code tells the registrar that you are the authorized person to request this transfer.

Email address of record: The email address that is connected to the account of the domain name. It can be found by using the "whois" service of the registrar or via the whois link at www.networksolutions.com

The following is extracted from the Wikipedia article "Domain name registrar".

1. The end user verifies that the whois admin contact info is correct, particularly the email address; obtains the authentication code (EPP transfer code) from the old registrar, and removes any domain lock that has been placed on the registration.

2. The end user contacts the new registrar with the request to transfer the domain name to their service, and supplies the authentication code.

3. The new registrar will contact the old registrar with this information.

4. The old registrar will contact the end user to confirm the authenticity of this request. The end user may have to take further action with the old registrar, such as returning to the online management tools, to re-iterate their desire to proceed, in order to expedite the transfer.

5. The old registrar will release authority to the new registrar.

6. The new registrar will notify the end user of transfer completion. The new registrar may have automatically copied over the domain server information, and everything on the website will continue to work as before. Otherwise, the domain server information will need to be updated with the new registrar.

After this process, the new registrar becomes the domain name's designated registrar. The process may take about five days. In some cases, the old registrar may intentionally delay the transfer as long as allowable. After transfer, the domain cannot be transferred again for 60 days, except back to the previous registrar.

It is unwise to attempt to transfer a domain immediately before it expires. In some cases, a transfer can take up to 14 days, meaning that the transfer may not complete before the registration expires. This could result in loss of the domain name registration and failure of the transfer. To avoid this, end users should either transfer well before the expiration date, or renew the registration before attempting the transfer.

If a domain registration expires, irrespective of the reason, it can be difficult, expensive, or impossible for the original owner to get it back. After the expiration date, the domain status often passes through several managment phases, often for a period of months; usually it does not simply become generally available

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Domain name registrar".

Copyright (c) 2009 Perkins eEnterprises.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".