Birmingham UK Com .

Transfer of a domain name

In most cases, if you are satisfied with the company you purchased your domain name from then a transfer should not be necessary.

Depending on where you purchased your domain name you may or may not have access to your domain name control. There are several reasons for this. Less control means the opportunity for someone to bill you for any changes you may require. Many domain names that were purchased at cheap prices do not come with the facility to log in and make changes to your settings. In effect this means that you are at the mercy of your domain name registrant and making changes can be tedious, frustrating and often accompanied by extortionate charges. To understand how this works lets take a look at some comparisons.

Example 1 - UK2 Net http://uk2.net/

UK2 Net sells very cheap domain names. They advertise at less than a quid their selling price but when you end up with the domain name in the shopping basket it has mysteriously risen to around a fiver. This is because they have added hosting your domain name and email routing in with the bill.

This is a great place to buy a domain name if you want a cheap domain that you are looking to sell later. However, the support is awful as their own customers will tell you on the Forums Board. There is so much negative feedback on this we are suprised that they havn't removed it. The other problem is that you retain hardly any control over the domain name that you just bought. Whilst you have a login and a few facilities that appear useful and free, the minute you try pointing your domain name anywhere you are obliged to carry the UK2 Net banner on the top of your webpage. It's not a discreet banner either. To remove it costs you money. In fact, pretty much anything you want to do to effectively use your domain name will involve an extra payment to UK2Net and to transfer your domain name to a new registrant will also cost you.

In the long run this is not a cheap way to purchase a domain name. We know, we have used them.

Example 2 - www.easyspace.co.uk

Another well known provider of domain names. Pretty much the same as the above. Cheap to start with and added charges for everything else that you do. Web direction is extra, changing nameserves is extra, transfering your domain name costs you. They will 'transfer in' your domain name for free though. We wonder why? Dont laugh.

What should I do?

As you will have seen, the cheapest domain name is not necessarily the best. We have tried using several companies. Our original domain name for Birmingham UK Com was purchased through a registrant in the USA. This was a nightmare to change over to a new hosting service. Contacting the appropriate person was almost impossible. In the end the transfer involved faxes over to the USA, a letter from the company, proof of identity etc etc and it took 3 weeks to change the domain name.

Every provider is different. All will try and squeeze that extra few quid out of your pocket and try and kid you that they are doing you a favour. We have come across quite a few registrants in our time. We host over 400 websites and are used to dealing with transfers of domain names. The horror stories, associated charges and problems encountered by some of our customers would make your hair stand on end. One of the worst was a certain Scottish registrant who wanted £150 just to change their customers nameservers. They justified this by rambling on about how much of a technical operation it was. This is absolute nonsense because it takes a few minutes if you have control over your domain name.

123 Reg

We use 123-Reg. Two thirds of our domain names are with 123 Reg. Why? Simply because their prices are excellent for what you get. You have full control over your domain name. You can repoint it, create up to 100 email addresses, a web holding page, change nameservers, contact details, configure your domain in every way possible. All this is at no extra charge and they do not charge you if you wish to move your domain name to a different registrant. They can confidently state this because they know no one will do so. The choice is yours. Take a good look around before you purchase a domain name. Follow these simple straight forward tips and don't get caught out.

Dummies Guide to Buying a domain name

1. Make sure you have control. By this we mean the choice on where you point your nameservers and the ability to change the namesevers without charges.
2. The ability to point your domain name to any webpage you choose without incurring charges (web forwarding).
3. A registrant that does not charge you for releasing your domain name if you want to transfer it elsewhere.
4. A registrant who charges reasonable renewal fees when the time to renew comes round.
5. A registrant that lets you change your email forwarding and contact details The ability to submit to search engines free and create a free holding page are an added bonus.
6. A registrant that has a good response time and actually answers your emails or phone calls.
In essence, its all about having control over the domain name you paid for. Don't you think you deserve that?

To Transfer or not to Transfer?

You want to move your domain name to your new hosting provider?. If you have full access over your domain name, by far the simplest method is to login to your registrant control panel and change the nameservers. In effect what you are doing is updating records so that the true address of your domain name is allocated to a new home. In effect your new hosting provider.

With full control over your domain name this is normally a simple process. You might be asked for an IPS Tag as well as your nameserver details. For example purposes the Birmingham UK Com IPS tag and nameservers might look like this. Yours would be completely different of course.

Nameservers

Primary DNS: ns.birminghamukshopping.co.uk
Secondary DNS: ns2.birminghamukshopping.co.uk

IPS TAG: HOST EUROPE

This is all the information you should need. You enter the details and click on the action button in your registrant control panel. Allow 24 hours for co.uk domain names to update and between 48 -72 hours for com, net and org domain names to update.

But I have no control over my domain name!

You will have to email or telephone your registrant and request a change of nameservers. Your choice of registrant will determine how difficult or easy this will be for you. Many of our customers ask this to do this for them. It is very time consuming and often very frustrating. Whilst we will assist you in any way we can we cannot do this for you as you are the owner of the domain name and the registrant will almost definately only deal with the purchaser of the domain name and will inevitably seek clarification that they are dealing directly with the owner. There is seldom anything we can do to assist.

I am sick of my registrant, I am being ripped off and I want to transfer

Before you leap in at the deep end here just make sure you aware of the charges that you will incur in transfering your domain name. If you do want to change your registrant we can recommend that you to create an account at 123 Reg and transfer your domain name to them directly.

As soon as you have received the transfer you can change the nameservers and point your domain name to your server or hosting account. You will then have full control over your own domain name.