This article is for DoOO Institutions that provide Top Level Domain registrations for all users by default. Below will walk through getting a domain ready to transfer away from Domain of One’s Own.
To start off, find the client in WHMCS. There are three primary requirements for a domain to be eligible for transfer:
- Domains must be at their current registrar for 60 days before transferring them to a new registrar (both new domains and recently transferred domains)
- Domain privacy must be turned off before initiating a transfer
- The domain must have its Registrar Lock turned off before initiating the transfer
We also recommend that nameservers are changed before initiating the transfer process as some registrars can take 5-7 days to complete a transfer and the ability to point to our servers will be locked during that time so having it done ahead of time can help someone get started immediately. That being said if you're transferring a site in addition to a domain it’s good to get the content migrated before changing nameservers.
To change your nameservers: Domains registered elsewhere can be pointed to Reclaim's nameservers (ns1.reclaimhosting.com and ns2.reclaimhosting.com) and once the DNS has propagated it will be hosted with us. Because we use a clustered DNS system it is not necessary to specify which server a site is hosted on. For domains being transferred, once the domain is approved and gets moved to us, the nameservers are automatically changed to match Reclaim's nameservers.
One thing to note: the domain must be at least 60 Days old before it is eligible for transfer. That is one of the first things you should check for when looking at the requirements because if the domain is not old enough then the other preparations are useless.
Once you’ve determined that the domain is old enough to transfer, the next step is to turn off ID Protect, and the registrar lock for the domain. These are two key components to a domain transfer. Within WHMCS you’ll need to uncheck the boxes for the registrar lock and ID Protect. Then click save changes at the bottom of the page.
Once those are unchecked, you’ll be able to request an EPP code to start the transfer process. Click the ‘Request EPP Code’ module command. This generates an email with the code, which looks something like this:
The new registrar will use that EPP code to initiate the transfer.
Additional Reading:
- Steps to Transfer a Domain Away from Reclaim Hosting
- EPP / Transfer Authorization Codes
- Lifecycle of a Reclaim Hosting Domain