The first thing to understand about transferring a domain name away from a domain hosting company is that your existing host cannot easily stop or frustrate the process.
The process:
- Go to the login page of where your domain is currently hosted and login to the admin control panel for your domains.
- Find and make a note of the passcode associated with this domain - note that passcode can be called a transfer key or authorisation key.
- Go to the "domain hosting" pages of the company that you are transferring to and find their "domain transfer" page. If you have an Ozhosting.com account simply login to your control panel, in the Domain area select Registered Domains, on the next screen select Transfer Existing.
- Enter the domain name in the designated field for transferring a domain name to this domain hosting company and in the field requesting a transfer key enter the passcode you noted from the current domain registrar. Click submit.
- Remember for Australian Domains (any that end in "au") you will need to have an organisation number such as ABN, ACN or BN and enter these details ( a common mistake is to select "ABN" and then enter an ACN number!). Make sure if you have selected ABN as the organisation number that you enter your ABN number.
- The Central Registry will send an email, to the nominated domain name contact, with a hyperlink that confirms the domain name transfer is requested. In the case of .com.au domain names you will receive an email from Melbourne IT.
- Click on the hyperlink in the email that takes you to the website page where you can validate your domain name transfer request. You must do this promptly - the links expire and last 72 hours at MOST.
- The domain name will then be transferred to your requested domain hosting company - this can take up to 48 hours.
Some Frequently Answered Questions Re Domain Names
Q: Can I purchase the domain name from one hosting company and immediately transfer to another one?
A: No. You must wait at least 60 days before the Central Registry will allow the transfer to proceed and your hosting company has no influence on this. We dont have an official reason why but this probably stops fraud where someone buys a domain name and then transfers it away before its apparent that their payment cannot be processed.
Q: There are some really cheap domain hosting companies - shouldn't I just transfer all my domain names to the cheapest?
A: Some of the cheap guys have hidden charges and are not cheap at all. For example when you buy a domain name you may actually want to use it! Yes, you may want to use it for email (eg. jess@styleshoes.com.au) and therefore need to add a mail exchange (MX) record, or use it for your website and therefore add an A record so the domain points to your website, or use it to confirm ownership of the domain name for a purpose like Google Analytics tracking and therefore add a text (TXT) record. At Ozhosting you can log into your domain and edit any of these domain records as required. Some domain hosting companies lock the owner out of this area and charge you to access these services - making the domain hosting much more expensive.
Q: Who is the nominated contact for my domain name?
A: Hopefully you! But you can check using a lookup service such as https://whois.auda.org.au/. Check the email address and make sure its still accessible and if its a tech support company get them to forward the email to you promptly.
Q: What do I do if I cannot get the authorisation code from where the domain is currently registered?
A: You can bypass your current provider by going to AusRegistry (provided it is a ".au" domain) to recover your password or authorisation code so you can proceed with the transfer. The current link (in 2018) is; https://afilias.com.au/about-au/domain-pw-recovery. Note, this will send the email to the admin email address of record so you must have access to that email address! For non-Australian domains you may need to talk to us about tracking down registrar and the authorisation code.