When you buy a domain name, do yourself a favour and buy from somewhere you know you’re going to commit to and do not buy through a website hosting company. I have bought hundreds upon hundreds of domains in my time and recently I’ve decided to move everything to GoDaddy, which to me seems like a stable domain registrar. I thought I’d cover a few basics on how to move a domain from one registrat (e.g. 123-reg or Pipex) to another (e.g. GoDaddy). Something I thought would be a pain to do actually seems straightforward and easy from a user point of view, however, domain administrators need to step in to finalise everything so it’s not all pie ‘n gravy. Anyway, heres a quick run through ofwhat goes down in a domain name transfer from one registrar (the “losers”) to another (the “winners”).
- User buys domain (e.g. domain.com) from original registra, the “losers”
- User wants to transfer domain to another registrar, the “winners”
- User logs into the “losers” control panel and updates the administrative whois information andunlocks the domain in the “losers” control panel
- User buys a transfer package (usually extending the domain ownership) from the “winners”
- “Winners” send an email with the ID number and a Key Code to confirm the transfer
- User logs in to the “winners” control panel and checks pending transfers and enters this information
- User requests authorization codes from the “losers”
- User takes authorization codes to complete the domain transfer
- “Losers” finally approve the transfer (thisis an unknown time)
This sounds relatively simple, however waiting for the company to release your domains may take a while. You also may need to tell the “losers” the destination IPS tags for the transfer to complete.
I am suffering great mental anguish waiting for 123/Pipex to release my domains and send me the authorization codes. They informed me that they already sent me the codes but I didn’t receive them, I get all their marketing crap and all the information I don’t want, but when it comes to the information I need, meh. Enough said.