Domainer's Gazette-Home

So, I buy a fair amount of domains from SnapNames, and due to their partnership, Network Solutions (ie. NetSol) winds up being the Registrar after the purchase completes. And being that NetSol charges $34.99 for a one year registration fee, compared to $8.95/yr at Go Daddy, I end up transferring over cash flow positive domains to GoDaddy within a year period. I’ve never seen many posts online that break down the step-by-step process that a user goes through transferring a domain, so I thought I’d share the typical steps I encounter when transferring a domain. I’d also say a majority of these steps are identical when transferring domains to-and-from other registrars..

For this example, and to simplify things, we’ll pretend “Sally” owns the domain ‘planetbnb.com’ and has it registered through NetSol, and she plans on transferring it to “Joseph”, and his account at Go Daddy.

Step One:
Firstly, Sally will have to 1) unlock the domain for transfer within her Network Solutions account and 2) request an Authorization Code (which NetSol will email to her). NetSol locks all domains by default, which basically means that they’re unable to transfer unless the domain owner unlocks them within the Domain Management area. To unlock a domain within NetSol, Sally follows these steps:

• Logs In
• accesses the ‘View Domain Name List’ area
• clicks on the domain name to be transferred
• locates the ‘Domain Protect’ line - which should say ‘On’ - and clicks the hyperlink that says ‘Turn off or Request Authorization Code’
• clicks radio button that says ‘Turn Domain Protect off’, checks the box that says ‘Request Authorization Code’, and clicks ‘Save’
• Done

At this point, NetSol will email Sally a message which includes her Authorization Code:

Dear Network Solutions® Customer,

We received your authorization code request on 04/30/2007 for your domain name PLANETBNB.COM.

Your authorization code is: NMNJp183hPK

At this point, the domain is fully unlocked, and ready for transfer. Sally should keep this authorization code handy, as Joseph will need to use it down the line.

Step Two
At the point, the ball is in Joseph’s court. The actual domain transfer process typically starts on the receiver’s side. In this case, it’s Joseph who’s having the domain moved to his account. To begin the transfer process from GoDaddy, Joseph would follow these steps:

• Logs in to GoDaddy
• Under the ‘Domains’ header, clicks ‘Transfer Domains to Go Daddy’ in the drop down
• Types the domain to be transferred in the submission box (in this case, planetbnb.com)
• proceeds to checkout
• selects registration length, privacy, auto-renew, all that jazz
• pays (current charge to transfer to Go Daddy is $6.95)

At this time, Sally will receive an email from Go Daddy, providing two very important pieces of information: the Transaction ID and Security Code. The letter she receives looks like below (and is quite wordy):

====================================================================
DOMAIN NAME TRANSFER - Initial Authorization for Registrar Transfer
====================================================================

Re: Transfer of PLANETBNB.COM

Dear GoDaddy.com Customer,

GoDaddy.com received a request on 4/30/2007 for us to become the new
registrar of record.

You have received this message because you are listed as the Registered
Name Holder or Administrative contact for this domain name in the WHOIS
database. If you are not the Account Holder, or you are transferring
the domain to a new owner, please forward this email to the appropriate
Account Holder so that they may complete the transfer process.

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
IMPORTANT: If the steps below are not completed, the domain name(s)
listed above will NOT be transferred to us.
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To proceed with the transfer, follow the instructions here:
http://help.godaddy.com/article.php?prog_id=GoDaddy&article_id=1592&topic_id=160&isc=gdbb2

In the process of authorizing this transfer, you will be prompted to
provide the Transaction ID and Security Code:

Transaction ID: 247743080
Security Code: LEDZE03232
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once a transfer takes place, you will not be able to transfer to
another registrar for 60 days, apart from a transfer back to the original
registrar, in cases where both registrars so agree or where a decision in
the dispute resolution process so directs.

If you DO NOT WANT the transfer to proceed, then please don’t respond
to this message.

If you have any questions about this process, contact us by email at
mailto:support@godaddy.com, or by phone at (480) 505-8877.

Regards,
Domain Services
GoDaddy.com

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Copyright 2007 GoDaddy.com. All rights reserved.

Sally will need to forward this email to Joseph, as he’ll need to plug in the Transaction ID and Security Code into Go Daddy to proceed with the process. In addition, Sally will need to forward over the Authorization Code that NetSol generated for her when she unlocked her domain.

Step Three:
At this point, to proceed with the transfer, Go Daddy will request Joseph to plug in the Transaction ID and Security Code. To do this, he’ll login to his Go Daddy account and navigate to ‘Pending Domain Transfers’ dropdown under the ‘Domain Names’ header (next to the Globe image). He’ll then click the ‘Authorization’ button and plug in the Transaction ID and Security Code in the provided boxes. After submitting those password keys and clicking ‘Continue’, Go Daddy will request the Authorization Code (that Sally generated when she initially unlocked her domain). Once Joseph plugs this in, and clicks the Continue button, he’ll be finished with his portion of the transfer process, and the domain will be set as ‘Pending Current Registrar Approval’ within Go Daddy.

At this point, Joseph will receive a confirmation email from Go Daddy stating the following:

Dear Joseph,

To complete your recently requested transfer, we must receive approval of the administrative contact currently associated with the domain name(s) below, which we have determined to be sally123@aol.com. A request for approval has been sent to that address. If you believe the email address is not correct, you must visit your current registrar and have it updated.

Step Four:
Once Joseph completes plugging in the Transaction ID, Security Code, and Authorization Code, Go Daddy will communicate to Network Solutions that all the required passwords were successfully provided. Network Solutions will then email Sally with the message below:

Dear Network Solutions® Customer,

We have received a request to transfer the domain name registration listed below to another domain name service provider. You should also have received an email from that registrar regarding this transfer request.

Domain Name: PLANETBNB.COM
Date of original request: April 30, 2007 5:12:06 PM EDT

In an effort to ensure that this request was not sent to us by mistake or in response to a “notice” sent to you by someone other than Network Solutions, we wanted to let you know that a number of our customers have informed us that they have received (and in some cases mistakenly responded to) notices they thought were from Network Solutions, but were actually from an unrelated third party. If you ever have any doubt or questions about a notice you receive, please contact us to verify its authenticity.

You do not need to transfer your domain name registration if you are only changing your ISP and/or hosting provider. In that case, you can login directly to Account Manager at http://goto.networksolutions.com/account-aoff and update your domain name servers (DNS) to match the DNS information provided by your new ISP or hosting provider.

IMPORTANT: Transferring a domain out of your Network Solutions account will result in the deletion of any other Network Solutions services that are associated with that domain.

If you have received this notification in error and do not wish to transfer your domain name registration we must hear from you before May 4, 2007 5:12:06 PM EDT so we may cancel this request. Please go to https://www.registrar-transfers.com/?h=758882e7d2debd944774d390f (or copy and paste the URL into your browser) and follow the instructions.

If you do still wish to transfer your domain name registration, we hope that you will reconsider and choose to stay with Network Solutions. We value your business and would like to keep you as a customer.

If you have any questions or need further assistance, please visit the Customer Service Center at http://www.networksolutions.com/help/index.jsp

Thank you for choosing Network Solutions®. We are committed to providing you with the solutions, services, and support to help you succeed online.

Sincerely,

Network Solutions® Customer Support

..and that’s a mouthful. What the message basically says is this: If Sally wishes to transfer the domain, she should do nothing - it’ll be transferred after a 4 day waiting period - on May4. Network Solutions also provides a link, the one that starts with ‘registrar-transfers.com’, for Sally to click if she’d like to cancel the request immediately.

SHORTCUT ALERT!!
Now what Network Solutions *doesn’t* tell her (in this email) is that Sally can skip the 4 day waiting period, and immediately approve this domain transfer by clicking that same link. If she clicked the link, she’d reach the following page below, asking whether she’d like to cancel or immediately approve:

If Sally selects the ‘Confirm’ radio button, and clicks ‘Submit’, Network Solutions will immediately release the domain to Joseph and his Go Daddy account. Typically, it’ll show up in Josephs account in under 15 minutes. Once confirmed, Go Daddy will also email Joseph with the below message:

Dear Joseph,

Congratulations! The transfer request for the following domain name(s) has been completed:

PLANETBNB.COM

That’s it! Hopefully this helps someone out there attempting a domain transfer. Feel free to share if you found it useful..

This entry was posted on Monday, April 30th, 2007 at 3:13 pm and is filed under Tips & Tricks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.