Domain on GoDaddy? Here’s how, and why, to transfer.

My domain registration dollars have gone to GoDaddy for several years; they were the cheapest registrar at the time, and transferring domain registration is a pain, as you’ll see in a moment. I could overlook the skeezy Super Bowl ads, shady business practices, and elephant-shooting torture-supporting CEO; after all I’m a lazy American and sometimes I go for what’s cheapest and easiest instead of most in line with my values. I’m not proud of that, I’m just saying.

GoDaddy really hit a nerve, though, when they filed a statement to the US House of Representatives in favor of SOPA. I won’t get into why SOPA is a really terrible thing; if you’re interested, check Wikipedia, this Reddit thread, or let Adam Savage from Mythbusters break it down for you. This was the very large straw that broken the inaction camel’s back, and this week I finally moved all 15 domains under my control away from GoDaddy.

Since this process is a pain, and because Jim Groom asked nicely, here’s a step by step tutorial for how to move your domains away from GoDaddy. I chose NameCheap as my new registrar; they publicly oppose SOPA, have a great reputation among the tech-knowledgable communities on both Reddit and Metafilter, offer a free year of WHOIS Guard (basically, a way to keep your contact information private) and are offering discounts on domain transfers. I completed my transfer before the discounts were announced, but there’s no reason YOU can’t take advantage of them.

UPDATE: Also, take a look at this Lifehacker article with updates on the situation, including discounts on new webhosting accounts.

Alright, let’s get to it. If you notice something missing from these instructions, please let me know and I will update them!

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 STEP ONE: UNLOCK YOUR DOMAIN

1. Doing your best to ignore Danica Patrick, sign into the GoDaddy website and go to My Account.
2. Under My Domains near the center of the page, click on the domain you want to transfer.
3. On the Domain Details page, look for the Domain Information section, and in the Locked row, click Manage.
4. UNCHECK the Lock Domains box, and click OK. If this box is already unchecked, leave it be. You’ll get a GoDaddy email notification that you did this; you can safely delete it.
5. You should be taken back to the Domain Details page. Stay there for the next step.

 

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STEP TWO: GET THE AUTHORIZATION CODE

1.  In the Domain Information section, find the Authorization Code row and click Send by email.
2. Within a few minutes, you will receive an email with the subject line “YOURDOMAIN.COM >> Information You Requested.” Keep this email, you’ll need it in a few minutes. If you’re transferring several domains, you’ll get a separate email and code for each one. If you haven’t received this within 10-15 minutes, check to make sure the email on file with GoDaddy is the correct one.
3. You should be taken back to the Domain Details page. Stay there for the next step.

 

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STEP THREE: TAKE NOTE OF CURRENT DNS SETTINGS

1. Once your transfer is complete, you may need to re-configure your domain to point to where your website is hosted. Take note of these details NOW to save yourself a lot of frustration, and to ensure your website experiences only a brief blip of inaccessibility (if any).
2. Near the bottom of the the Domain Details page, look for the Nameservers and DNS Manager boxes. Take a screenshot of this information or write it down.
3. In the above illustration, my DNS settings are very simple … yours may be more complicated, and might include information about email services for your domain. When it doubt, write it all down! If you’re missing anything when the transfer completes, your website and/or your email might be inaccessible while you scramble to figure out what you forgot.

 

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STEP FOUR: REQUEST A TRANSFER