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DNS

--- What is DNS?

The first step to having a website is having a domain name people can easily find your website at. Websites are hosted on servers that use numeric IP addresses. A domain name server converts those domain names into numeric IP addresses.

--- Why transfer?

Back when Google Enterprise was still Google Apps, I registered a lot of domain names with them for 2 simple reasons.

1. they were cheap ( $10/year )
2. they included Private Whois for free

This was some 7 years ago when Google was still good. Since then a lot has changed with Google, and now they are asking me to agree to a new Service Agreement that costs animecharactersdatabase.com specifically more money. I'm not sure why only this domain is going to cost me more.

I've wanted to try another registrar for quite some time, but the question has always been who and how. The more successful the website, the more risk there is to transfering. So I opted to try with an expendable domain.

As for who to transfer to, I decided on OrangeWebsite. A friend of mine has a website with them, and their Iceland location gave me some reason to believe they would be a safer and more reliable option than going with a US based company. I already had an account with them, and had research the process a little bit before.

Thus with a company and domain in mind, on Saturday February 1st at around noon, I began the lengthy process of transferring a domain. By February 3st at 1AM the process was complete.

--- How to transfer?

If like me you have domains registered with Google Enterprise and wish to leave, here is a general rundown of what you can expect.

Step 1) Disable Private Whois

Doing this is fairly complicated as Google DOES NOT provide you with login credentials for domainsbyproxy. First login to your DNS management page following the link and details provided by Google. Then click the Private link to be taken to the domains by proxy page. You will need to follow both the account retrivial and password reset processes before you can login. Check the email account you set to receive your DOMAIN@DOMAINS-BY-PROXY emails for the details. Once you have access to the DBP site, you must cancel privacy for your domain from here. But be warned, it will immediately update the whois information with ALL the information you filled in.

Step 2) buy transfer

Once you have disabled private whois, you should initiate the domain transfer by purchasing a transfer from another registrar.

Step 3) unlock your domain

Can do this from the GoDaddy interface. Just click Lock, and it will be unlocked.

Step 4) authorize transfer

You will soon receive an email with a link to authorize the transfer request.

Step 5) wait

Step 6) Last Chance

You will get another email from Google. This time asking you to decline the transfer, or wait 5 days for it to go through automatically. You can follow the same instruction in the email to approve the transfer immediately. However, it will still take some time for your domain provider to confirm and make the changes on their side.

Step 7) wait

Step 8) set up your DNS with your new registrar

--- Thoughts post transfer

A lot of this does feel risky. Unlocking domain. Publishing your personal information in the whois. Transferring. I think it is fair to expect there will be some domain outages when you do a transfer. Most of the process is pretty seamless, and your domain information is cached at many levels. However, once the transfer is completed it is likely the new registrar will not have the most useful DNS configuration, and correcting that may take some time. Also when your domain is transfered, it is immediately removed from the existing registrar. So until the new one has it up in their index, there is a possible hole when your domain is not lookup-able. Also be cautious about who you are transferring your domain to. Apparently anyone, and many companies do act as commissioned resellers. If the website you are transferring your domain to is lacking an ICANN logo, you should expect THEY ARE NOT THE ONES IN CHARGE OF YOUR DOMAIN. Some other company you know nothing about is going to get your domain instead while they pocket a nice profit brokering the exchange for you. All updates you do with them, they simply broker to the bigger fish.

--- Decision

I'll keep animecharactersdatabase.com with Google Inc for another year.