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Domain Name Transfer and Domain Management

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Your Website Domain Name (the www bit) is one of the most important yet overlooked parts of your website. Our guide below helps you to understand how this is managed, how you can transfer your domain name to Clarke Design or transfer one to a new provider.

Transferring a Domain Name

Clarke Design can manage your website domain name for you. We'll make sure that it renews when it should, we'll take care of all of the settings for you, assigning it to your website hosting and configuring the various email accounts and we'll just make it work for you.

You may want to transfer your domain name to Clarke Design so that we can do all of this management for you. Here is what you need to do to transfer your domain names to Clarke Design.

Transferring a Domain Name to Clarke Design

Firstly you MUST tell us that you are transferring your domain name to Clarke Design, so that we know to expect it. DO NOT just transfer domain names to us and expect us to know about it. We need to configure our systems to make sure that the domain name has somewhere to live on arrival.

.uk Domain Names

.uk domain names are usually the easiest and quickest domain names to transfer. They are controlled by something called an IPSTAG. Internet Provider Security (IPS) tags are used by your Internet Service Provider to determine where a domain name lives. Changing this tag effectively moves your .uk domain name from one provider to another.

  1. Before transferring your domain name to Clarke Design, you MUST contact us to request our IPSTAG.
  2. Once we are ready to receive your .uk domain name you then update the IPSTAG, or you can ask your current registrar to do this for you and the domain will transfer to Clarke Design, usually within a few hours.
  3. Once we accept your domain name, we are then responsible for it's renewal and administration.

Other Domain Names

Non-UK domain names such as .com, .org and .net are dealt with in a different fashion to that of a .uk domain name. Non-UK domain names are referred to as gTLD domain names.

Transferring a gTLD from one provider to another is a multi-stage process and can take several days to move providers. This is also usually done by one system talking to another.

  1. Before asking Clarke Design to transfer your domain name to our systems, you MUST contact us to request the transfer process.
  2. You or your current registrar must UNLOCK the domain name so that Clarke Design can request it's transfer. A LOCKED domain name cannot be requested for transfer so nothing can happen until this is done.
  3. Once the domain name is unlocked, an authorisation code will then be provided by your current registrar that needs to be passed on to Clarke Design. Again without this code the transfer cannot be completed.
  4. Once the domain name is unlocked and we have the authorisation code, Clarke Design will request that your domain name is transferred to us.
  5. The transfer request is done automatically by our systems and an email will be sent by our control panel to the currently registered administrator of the domain name. As part of the request we will inform you what this email address is and where the email will be sent to. If this is not correct you will need to ask your current registrar to change the administration email address as Clarke Design has no choice of where to send the transfer request.
  6. The automated transfer request email is sent to the currently registered administrator, they then act upon that request. Clarke Design are then notified and we then enter the previously determined authorisation code to finalise the transfer.

As part of the process when moving a gTLD domain name, it MUST be renewed for an additional year and an associated charge will be made. This is so that people do not buy a cheap domain name from one provider and then move it swiftly to another provider. There is usually a 60 day restriction after initially purchasing a gTLD domain name until it can be moved to another registrar.

Transferring a Domain Name away from Clarke Design

If you wish to transfer your domain name to another registrar and away from Clarke Design, please just call us and request this.

We very rarely charge for this service unlike many other providers. After all the domain name is yours and you've already been paying for it.

We'll just need all of the details of your new provider to start the process, which can take a few days to complete.