domain transfer question, etc-1and1 nightmares

ppc

Moderator
I have some small things hosted on 1and1 and all of my domains are managed through 1and1. To make a long story short I need to get my domains out of 1and1's hands cause they are double charging and doing alot of other unethical stuff.

How many domains can I register with knownhost and how much is it? I'm guessing I get a domain control panel with enom?

Regarding domains in general, how long does it take for a domain trasfer. My web hosting business name server domain name would be transfered, would their be any name server downtime?

thanks!

ppc
 
You would most likely do this.

Register a free account at a registrar like http://registerfly.com they let you register a free account without buying a domain first. Then make sure all of your domains at 1&1 are "unlocked" (I know godaddy and a lot of other registrars allow domain locking) then use the domain transfer options at registerfly.com and when you transfer to registerfly, you pay $6.99/domain/year and you get a fresh new year of registration on each domain, then that will permanently move your domains from 1&1's records to your new account at registerfly.com.


-Caleb
 
my nameserver domain name is managed by 1and1....any ideas on how to keep downtime to a minimum?
 
ppc,

We do not offer domain registration services except single domain at the time when signup order is placed. There is a chance that we will sometime in the future but not right now - we prefer to concentrate on offerings that we're experienced in and don't really want to step on the domain registration market.
There are a lot of good domain registrars around. I personally have experience with GoDaddy and eNom. Both seems to be doing their domain registration job pretty good.
You should be prepared for at least two things if you decide to transfer your domains away from 1&1:
- Pay for 1 year renewal for each domain (in case of .co.uk and some other TLDs 2 year renewal will be required);
- Wait at least 5-6 days since the moment when transfer request is submitted. We've transferred couple of our own domains from 1&1 to eNom and every time we had to wait as 1&1 don't confirm or deny domain transfer request and, according to rules, transfer must be done in case if neither confirmation nor denial is received within 5 full days since the moment when domain transfer request was placed. This is ridicules but true. I have no idea why it is so hard for them to release the domain if account is in good standing, etc.

As for nameserver related question - check this with your new domain registrar - if they can transfer nameservers configuration, then you should have no problems but you may end up having some downtime if they will assign some generic nameservers to the transferred domain.

Regards,
Paul
 
Yea 1 and 1 is a pain to transfer domains from. i actually had to fax them a signed document when i done mine about a year ago:confused:
 
I really feel that a lawsuit is needed against 1and1. I call up and want to speak to their corporate office...they say they are not allowed to give that info to me :/

they can basically get away with what ever they want......

Jay, i would assume that practise that you said earlier of not responsing to transfer requests would be a violation of icann. [I'm actually on the phone waiting for a rep now to ask them if they can anwser the request]
 
Downtime is almost inevitable in this case. The only thing I can think of is to temporarily switch the TTL all of the DNS zones of the transferred domains from 44400 to 180 about 24 hours before the transition. Not much else to say here. That's pretty sad that 1&1 offers $6/year registrations but gives you the shaft on support and transfers, that's why I don't register with the big guys.


-Caleb
 
They're not required to allow / deny any transfer request. As per eNom every transfer request has a timeout of 5 days and, if neither denial nor approval is received from the source registrar domain transfer is considered as approved and domain will be moved to the new registrar. Again, I have no idea why they don't approve transfers and require their customers to wait 5 full days until actual transfer will take place but who knows... may be this is their (censored) policy. They don't violate any rules, they just make it harder to move your domains somewhere else.

Regards,
Paul
 
Caleb: Can you explain why change the TTL to less.....I would think to actually make it a longer TTL so the world name servers wont even look for a change and when they do i will already have the domain name transfered and the NS servers set up?

Paul: Have you ever done this(can you confirm it would work)....or if you have any other ideas such as what you did when you switched your domains from 1and1 to enom...
 
In my understanding, a longer TTL would mean that it takes longer for the root servers to notice the domain changed, but it also takes longer to notice when it's back up. A shorter TTL makes it essentially so that the DNS updated faster, accruing minimal downtime, but better than a lot.

-Caleb
 
Yes, I did. The biggest challenge was to move knownhost.com domain. Luckily eNom allows to transfer nameserver registration information, so everything went well but this whole process was painful. Hate to wait for things that cannot be controlled.

TTL change won't help much. It will only affect nameservers that were used to resolve your domain name within now-TTL timeframe.

Regards,
Paul
 
Yes, I did. The biggest challenge was to move knownhost.com domain. Luckily eNom allows to transfer nameserver registration information, so everything went well but this whole process was painful. Hate to wait for things that cannot be controlled.

In 1and1....To make name servers one has to make subdomains such as ns1.domain.com and ns2.domain.com and then specify the ip address.

Can you tell me how enom does it or specifically how you did it? Is it automatic or is it something you had to call them about to do? This info would be really appreciated....

also, btw, do you know of anyway that I can get an enom account without having to fund it with $100.

Either way, can you allow me to register my domain name(the one tied with the nameservers) through knownhost.....I did not register any domains at signup and it would save me alot of money as if i went directly to enom as an enduser it would cost me around $30 per year for a domain name threw enom....

thanks again
 
I would like to know why enom charges so much for domains and sites like registerfly are so much cheaper?:confused: I have about 18 domains at registerfly.
 
ppc, you can try to drop an email to sales to see if they can do this for you but I'm not really sure.
Take a look at GoDaddy - they don't require any deposits as far as I know

Regards,
Paul
 
ppc, you can try to drop an email to sales to see if they can do this for you but I'm not really sure.
Take a look at GoDaddy - they don't require any deposits as far as I know

Regards,
Paul

Ok thanks...but with godaddy it wont transfer over the DNS settings....given how 1and1 does dns servers(with the subdomains)....would enom still transfer the DNS settings over?

I'm guessing than they let you change stuff on the domain before it transfer so when it does transfer over it will be all ready?

If you could just tell me how you got enom to do that for you that would be great...

thanks
 
It doesn't really matter how 1&1 handles nameservers registration internally. What really matters is what they kind of information they push to root nameservers. I'm not sure if GoDaddy has similar option which will allow to transfer nameserver names / nameserver IPs.

Regards,
Paul
 
wowee-to my suprise...a real solution

Wait at least 5-6 days since the moment when transfer request is submitted. We've transferred couple of our own domains from 1&1 to eNom and every time we had to wait as 1&1 don't confirm or deny domain transfer request and, according to rules, transfer must be done in case if neither confirmation nor denial is received within 5 full days since the moment when domain transfer request was placed. This is ridicules but true. I have no idea why it is so hard for them to release the domain if account is in good standing, etc.



Hate to wait for things that cannot be controlled.

Not anymore!

Here's the story: So i really got fed up with this so after speaking to 1and1 on the phone numerous times about this i decided to email them again. To my suprise a rep emailed me back and gave me this small minute list of instructions which happen to make 1and1 automatically aproove the domain transfer on a domain name without having to wait the 5 days as per ICANN's rules for a no reply. :)

The response by 1and1:

Dear Customer,

Thank you for contacting us.

When I checked your domain I found out that you have not yet made a Change Of Provider request in the online cancellation site of 1&1. You have to make this request so that any trasnfer request will automatically be processed. How to go about doing this?

1. Login to https://cancel.1and1.com by using customer id and password.
2. Click 'Cancel' from left navigation menu.
3. Click the package that has the domain/domains you wish to delete.
4. Choose 'Cancel domains and/or additional items in this package'.
Click 'Continue'
5. Choose the option ----CHANGE of PROVIDER---- for the domain. Click 'Continue'.
Change provider
If you would like your domain to be maintained by another provider (and only then), you must select this option. The change is effected differently for every TLD (Top Level Domain, e.g.: .com). If you choose this option, we will automatically acknowledge a transfer request by another provider.
6. Click 'Finish'
7. A confirmation is displayed.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

--
Sincerely,
Technical Support
1&1 Internet

Its really unbelevable...this info is no where to be found in the so called "comprehensive" 1and1 FAQ's. In addition, no telephone support reps told me about this. I have seen this time and time again that these telephone support reps are not knowledagble of their companies policies at all.

Maybe change this thread title to a how-to or something so other people who would be in my position will not have to deal with 1and1's incompetancies.
 
Update: I switched all the domains over to godaddy. They have been pretty reliable.

For those who are considering registerfly.com, I would suggest not to do it....

I have been reading all over forums that register fly goes down regularyly which means the dns server goes down which means your site goes down as well.

Check out this site which was created just to get the word out on how bad register fly is:

http://registerflies.com/
 
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