Instructions -- Important
Your current Administrative Contact Address MUST work. If it doesn't, you must go through your current Registrar and get it changed, BEFORE YOU INITIATE THE TRANSFER REQUEST.
Once you complete the Transfer Registration Forms, you will receive an email from transfers@opensrs.org, with a URL (web address), and a unique password which you will enter on that page, along with your domain name, and click to approve the domain registration Transfer. Failure to complete this step means your Transfer Request will not be sent to the Verisign Registry.
If your current Administrative Email Contact Email Address is wrong, and if you can't remember who your current Registrar is, then using the whois at internic.net will tell you that. ( http://internic.net/whois.html ) . If the person who is the Administrative Contact no longer works for your company, or you are no longer dealing with the company where that person is, then you must make sure that you get the Admin Contact email address changed to yourself, or to someone who is going to look after your domain modifications for you in the future. Once again, you must do this, PRIOR to initiating the Transfer Request. The CURRENT Admin Contact person must be able to receive the Transfer Request Approval Email Letter.
Why should I transfer my domain early?
You should transfer your domain early, because you're assured of saving money then. The ICANN rules say that if a competing registrar is owed money, i.e, the domain has come to its renewal date, then they do not have to approve a registrar transfer, and you will have to pay your current registrar THEIR CURRENT PRICES!!! In the case of Network Solutions Inc. (NSI) and Register.com, that's probably $35 US.What does transferring registrars mean?
A transfer automatically renews your domain for one year. You retain any unused time with the current registration. For example, a domain with a November 10, 2001 due date, can be transferred, and the new due date becomes November 10, 2002.
You save approximately $25 US. if you're transferring away from Register.com or NSI.
Don't be fooled by the NSI spin doctors trying to tell you that competing registrars with lower prices can't give good service. Baloney!! In fact, you'll get better service, and have easier access to your domain information, with us. Right now, NSI is sending out email letters, two months in advance of your renewal date. That's good for you. It's a cue to get moving and get your domain out of there, before you get dinged for that ridiculous $35 US price again. TRANSFER NOW -- DON'T WAIT
It means that you transfer your sponsoring registrar from your current registrar, where you probably initially registered your domain name, or where your ISP or agent did it for you, on your domain name record. The sponsoring registrar is the one who mai ntains the complete domain registration database record, which contains all your domain contact information, etc. The central registry only holds minimal information about your domain, i.e., it's nameservers, the status, sponsoring registrar, etc. Still don't understand? Read on.
If you already have a .com, .net, or .org domain name and registered it prior to May, 1999, then it's probably registered through NSI. NSI used to have a monopoly on domain name registration. Not any more. Since the middle of 1999, people have been abl e to register domain names with competing registrars. NSI was awarded the contract to look after the main registry database. All new registrars connect with this central database to register domains into the database.
If you registered your domain with a competing registrar, after NSI lost their monopoly, then you might have your domain registered through Register.com or some other registrar. Chances are, you're paying $35 US per year for your domain name registration , plus, in some cases, additional service fees for this and that.