Transfer information

Information about domain transfers

If your name has recently expired or will be expiring in less than two weeks, be sure and contact us directly for advice. We may recommend that you renew with your current registrar.

Can I transfer domains already registered with another registrar (i.e. Network Solutions) to the VDBS Registry/OpenSRS?

Yes. However, there are some conditions. We cannot do registrar transfers for domains that are On Hold or Past Due with the current registrar. To be on the safe side, you should start the registrar transfer process at least two weeks before the exp iry of the domain.

Please note that if a com/net/org domain does expire and you have to renew with the old registrar, you should not transf er until 45 days past the anniversary date. If you do, the year paid to the old registry will be lost and they do not give r efunds.
The Admin Contact Email address for the domain must be valid.
Currently, the automated system doesn't support transfers for some ccTLD domains. Contact [email protected] for assistanc e.
Once the transfer order is started, an Email will be sent to the Admin Contact Email address of the domain to be transfe rred.
IMPORTANT Before you attempt to transfer a domain, make sure that the Admin Contact Email for the domain to be tr ansferred is valid. If the Admin Contact Email address listed in the current whois info is no longer valid, you must contact the original registrar to request it be changed. We can't assist you in transferring the domain until we can verify who is accepting the transfer.
The confirmation Email contains detailed instructions for the Admin contact. This includes a unique URL which displays a n option to either accept or decline the transfer.
Note that all transfers are sanity-checked to prevent high-profile domains like "aol.com" from being transferred fraudul ently.
Registrar transfers are sent to the Registry where it awaits approval. Unless the losing Registrar explicitly denies the transfer (for instance, if the domain is past it's expiry date), it will usually go through this step within 9 days. It can go through sooner if the losing registrar explicitly approves the transfer. This will vary from registrar to registrar.
Please note that some Registrars have added confirmations of their own for transfers away from their system. Please contact them directly for details.
Flash news Sept 23, 2002
The additional step with Verisign my no longer be necessary. Recent transfer requests have just required the steps outlined above.
The transfer itself doesn't cost anything additional but you are charged one year's registration fee to renew the domain for one year with OpenSRS. This year is added on top of whatever time is remaining on the domain from the previous registra r.
Please note that when you process a transfer, it usually takes 3-5 days but may take as long as 10 days.

Here's the basic procedure:

You start the transfer at the http://registry.vdbs.com website. Agree to the terms and conditions

and on the next page select Register a Domain or Transfer your domain.
Continue by entering the name of the domain you wish to transfer in the section "Move Your Domain to Our Servers" then clicking "Move Domain Name".
Next you give us information about who you are. If you have previously registered a domain with us, you can save some typing by chosing the existing client option and entering one of your existing domains and current uasername and password. If you are new to our services, you create a new username and password that you can use int he future to manage your domain information.
If you are a new client, you will get the following form. Just enter your information and verify on the last page and you are on your way. If you are already a client, the information is already filled in for you.

VERY IMPORTANT
After you submit your request, it is approved by us, then you are asked to acknowledge the transfer is in fact requested by receiveing an email from OpenSRS/Tucows (our parent registry). This email is sent to the address on file in the current domain registration.

Sample request acknowledgement from OpenSRS

     From: OpenSRS Transfers [mailto:[email protected]]
     Sent: Friday, June 28, 2002 3:52 PM
     To: YOUR_REGISTERED_ADMIN-CONTACT_EMAIL_ADDRESS
     Subject: Transfer Request for YOURDOMAIN.com


     A request has been received to transfer the domain gofaster.com
     to Visual Database Systems, an authorized reseller of the registrar
     Tucows. This request was entered at Fri Jun 28 12:58:40 2002 by
     Your_Name_Here. Note that your nameservers will not change
     as a direct result of this transfer.

     This acknowledgement of transfer will be processed by Tucows Inc,
     a ICANN accredited registrar on behalf of Visual Database Systems.
     If this is a valid request and you wish to approve this transfer,
     please visit the following url and follow the instructions:

     https://rr-n1-tor.opensrs.net/transfers/index.cgi?rid=19776

     You will need to enter the following information to complete the
     transfer:
     Domain Name: YOURDOMAIN.com
     Transfer Key: iSbKhqUQwS

     If you do not wish to approve this transfer, you may simply ignore
     this message and the request will be cancelled, or you can use the
     Domain Name and Transfer Key above to  cancel  the transfer.

     Accepting this transfer will change the registrar of record for
     your domain from its current registrar, to Tucows/OpenSRS; it may
     also change some of the contact information. If you are receiving
     this email, you should have initiated, or at least been aware of
     this request already. If this is the first time that you've heard
     of this, do not accept the transfer until you are satisfied that
     the request is legitimate.Thank you.

     Team Visual Database Systems and Team Tucows

You must then follow the steps given in that email of accessing a website and entering a code and your phone number.
Next depending on who the current registrar is, you may be asked again to acknowledge to them that you in fact want to approve the transfer. (Verisign/NSI requires this.)

Sample of a transfer approval request from Verisign (Network Solutions)
(Note that it looks a lot like junk mail.)

They have cahnged it again and it looks even more confusing but they have a copyright claim on it too so we shouldn't post the most recent one. This is only a sample.

From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2002 1:19 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [NIC-020911.5c6a] Your Registrar Transfer Request

Dear Valued VeriSign(r) Customer:

We've received a request to Change the Registrar of your
domain name registration YOURDOMAIN.COM to another registrar.
You're a valued customer, and we want you to remain with
VeriSign. We hope you'll reconsider and renew your domain
name registration with VeriSign at our special valued
customer promotional price, available at:
http://www.stayoffer.com

Don't miss out on the benefits VeriSign is committed to
providing you, including:

24-HOUR CUSTOMER SUPPORT
FREE access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
Get help when you need it. Customer Support is available
by phone, e-mail, and through our Web site.

ONLINE MANAGEMENT TOOLS
Manage all your services with our easy-to-use, Web-based
interface. Set up a Web site, add additional e-mail
boxes, modify your contact information...it's all in
one place.

To renew YOURDOMAIN.COM with VeriSign at our special
promotional price, click here: http://www.stayoffer.com

**************************************************************
We take every effort to protect you against unauthorized or
fraudulent registrar changes. To keep your domain name
registration with VeriSign, no action on your part is necessary.
To confirm your desire to change your registrar, copy and paste
the line below into the subject line of your return email:
[NIC-020911.5c6a]:YOURDOMAIN.COM:883230:TRANSFER=YES

If you don't respond within 96 hours from the time stamp of
this e-mail, the request to Change Registrar will be denied.
The timestamp of this e-mail and the time to respond are
based on Eastern Time. If you have any questions, please
e-mail us at: [email protected].

At VeriSign, we've been building online identities since the
Internet was introduced. We will continue to put this
experience and reliability to work for you. Thank you for
being a VeriSign customer.

IMPORTANT You must reply to that email and cut and paste the magic line into the subject line exactly like they aska nd you need to do this within 96 hours from when they send it. (They want you to fail so they keep you as a customer.)

In three to nine days if all goes well, the transfer will be complete and registry.vdbs.com will be your new registrar.

Contact me for any other questions or assistance.

John Blakney
(501) 256-8514 [email protected]

Back to the VDBS registry home

Information about domain transfers

If your name has recently expired or will be expiring in less than two weeks, be sure and contact us directly for advice. We may recommend that you renew with your current registrar.

Can I transfer domains already registered with another registrar (i.e. Network Solutions) to the VDBS Registry/OpenSRS?

Flash news Sept 23, 2002

Here's the basic procedure:

VERY IMPORTANT