Transfer Your Domain Registration to NICForce

 
Your Domain Host will pay your domain name registration fees for any domain name that is the primary domain name associated with an active qualifying hosting account on our servers as long as your account meets all other conditions described here. If you move your domain from our servers, or if you fail to meet any of the conditions, you will be automatically charged for domain registration fees, which are currently $15.00 per year.

 
If your domain name has already been registered with another domain name registration agency and is currently hosted by YourDomainHost, you can take advantage of this offer by transferring your registration to NICForce. Simply wait until your current registration period is between 2 weeks and 2 months of its expiration date, then follow these step-by-step instructions:

Step 1: Determine Your Eligibility

The information on this page pertains to current Your Domain Host web hosting customers with hosting accounts that qualify for our free domain registration offer. Please review the terms and conditions of this offer before proceeding to make sure that you qualify for free registration and renewal.

 
If your domain name does not qualify for free registration and renewal, you can still take advantage of the low NICForce rates -- just submit your transfer request from the NICForce.net web site.

Step 2: WHOIS Lookup

First, do a WHOIS lookup on your domain name. CLICK HERE to access the NICForce WHOIS page. Leave the results open.

Step 3: Validate Administrative Contact E-mail

Look at the WHOIS output and examine the e-mail address that's associated with your administrative contact record.

IMPORTANT!
You must be able to receive e-mail at your current adminstrative contact e-mail address in order for the transfer to complete successfully.

If you cannot receive e-mail at that address, you will have to update your domain record to reflect a valid e-mail address before submitting your transfer request -- visit your current registrar and follow their procedures for updating your contact record. After the record is updated, return to this page and continue the process.

Step 4: Validate Expiration Date

Look at the WHOIS output and determine your current expiration date. If the domain name has already expired or is very close to expiring, the transfer request will fail. You'll need to renew the domain for one year with the current registrar and try the transfer again 2 months prior to the next expiration. (You can close the WHOIS output window after completing this step.)

Step 5: Review the Process

Please review the transfer process as described below so that you know what to expect and what actions are required on your part in order to complete the process successfully.

• Once your transfer order is processed, an e-mail confirmation request will be sent to the Administrative Contact e-mail address of the domain to be transferred. The confirmation e-mail will be sent from transfers@opensrs.org, and contains a unique URL which displays an option to accept the transfer (if you wish to decline, just ignore the request and it will time-out and cancel after approximately 7 days). To complete the transfer process, the Administrative Contact must follow the instructions contained in that e-mail.

 

• Once the domain owner (the person who answers the Administrative Contact e-mail address) agrees to the transfer, it is reviewed by OpenSRS. Note that all transfers are sanity-checked to prevent high-profile domains like "aol.com" from being transferred fraudulently (some domains will require extra verification).

 

• Then the request is sent to the Registry where it awaits approval. Unless the losing Registrar explicitly denies the transfer (for instance, the account may not be "in good standing" with them), it will usually go through this step within 5 days. It can go through sooner if the losing registrar explicitly approves the transfer. This will vary from registrar to registrar.

 

• Most registrars, notably Register.com and Network Solutions, also require their own confirmation from the administrative contact. Some registrars do their best to make the transfer process as confusing and difficult as possible. Please read carefully any e-mail that you may receive from the losing registrar, and carefully follow their instructions.

Step 6: Submit the Transfer Request

Once you've read and understood the information above, you can submit your transfer request by entering your domain name below and following the instructions. Note that even though you are an existing Your Domain Host customer, unless you've previously registered a domain name through NICForce, you're a new NICForce customer. When you move to the domain profile setup screen, select the "New Client" option and enter the desired username and password you want to use to manage your NICForce domain.

The process will take approximately 7 days to complete. If you do not receive confirmation after 7 days, do a WHOIS lookup on your domain to determine the status of your registration. If the transfer was successful, you will see the following statement in your WHOIS output:

	     Registration Service Provider:
	        TNS Group, Inc. dba NICForce.net
    		http://www.nicforce.net/
    		Internet Presence & Identity Solutions
    		tnsgroup.com  yourdomainhost.com  nicforce.net
    		
    	     Registrar of Record: TUCOWS, INC.
	   

If your WHOIS is still showing the original registrar, contact us to determine the status of your request.