How To Get Your EPP (Domain Name Transfer) Code

How To Create A Separate Website Using An Add-On Domain Name

In this section I will explain how you get the EPP (Domain Name Transfer) Code of an existing domain name in order to transfer the domain name to another web hosting provider. I will also show you how to turn that transferred domain name into either a parked domain name or an addon domain name.

Familiarise yourself with what a parked domain name is, and what an add-on domain name is, if need be so that you know the advantages and disadvantages of each one. Otherwise, skip the explanations below and jump straight to the DOMAIN NAME OWNERSHIP paragraph.

Add-On Domain

An Add-On Domain is a normal domain name (i.e. www.software.com) that points to (connects to) a sub-folder within your main domain name's public_html (website) folder. That sub-folder is normally named after your add-on domain name (i.e. software.com). So if your main domain name is www.computers.com and your add-on domain name is www.software.com your web hosting provider will create a new sub-folder called software.com inside the public_html folder of www.computers.com and then point/link (redirect) www.software.com to that new sub-folder called software.com.

This means that anyone typing www.software.com into their web browser will be taken to a sub-folder called software.com within the public_html folder of www.computers.com.

The advantages of an add-on domain name are that 1) It has its own folder which means it can be classed as a website within its own right and 2) It saves on buying two web spaces (two pure websites). However. The overall disadvantage of hosting two domain names (a main domain name and an add-on domain name) is that they share the same web space and bandwidth.

This has serious side-effects if you want to have video on one or both websites (domain names) because the web space and bandwidth might be shared unevenly, which means a customer might miss out on a download. For example. A free video download on www.software.com might take up the bandwidth for a buying customer on www.computers.com.

Parked Domain

A Parked Domain is a normal domain name (i.e. www.software.com) that points/links (redirects) to your main domain name (i.e. www.computers.com) only - It has no web space folder or bandwidth of its own because it shares the same web space and bandwidth allocated to your main domain name.

A parked domain name is typically set up when you want a .co.uk and a .com for example to go to the same web space. So if you have www.computers.com as your main domain name and www.computers.co.uk as your parked domain name, visitors who type www.computers.co.uk into their web browser will be sent to the same web space that www.computers.com is using and therefore see the same website content (the same web pages, video and so on).

Domain Name Ownership

When you have a website (web space and domain name) it is normally purchased, by you, on a yearly basis. The domain name registration can be extended for longer, if you wish, but in a normal scenario a .com for example is registered for one year and a .co.uk for two years. This is possible because your domain name and web space are two different entities and can therefore be separated or joined. And this is the beauty of domain names.

If you do not like your current web hosting provider hosting your website (web space and domain name), for whatever reason(s), you can cancel your web space hosting contract with them while keeping your domain name. Well, that is the theory anyway. Unfortunately. The reality for some people is very different. They are made to stick with their web space contract, for whatever reason(s), and have no rights over their domain name transfer because their web hosting provider is holding back on the EPP Code.

Get Your EPP (Transfer) Code

If you have ever tried to switch to another broadband provider or mobile phone contract you will know that whilst under contract you need a transfer code for them known respectively as a Migration Authorisation Code (MAC Code) and a Porting Authorisation Code (PAC Code). And it is a similar scenario when wanting to transfer your domain name. You need to contact your current web hosting provider, or domain name registrar directly, in order to get your Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP Code) transfer code. An epp code looks something like this (depends on the issuer): ab1234cd567890e1.

When you purchase a domain name using a web hosting provider, as opposed to going directly to a domain name registrar, the web hosting provider registers that domain name for you with their preferred domain name registrar. The downside of this is that they normally register their own company details as the owner of that domain name and not your details.

So they have ownership of your domain name because they have the username and password of the registrar account that was set up for your domain name. To make matters worse! some web hosting providers are also domain name registrars (known as Resellers). So in these situations you need to speak nicely to your web hosting provider and ask them for the EPP Code or the User Name & Password of the registrar account.

Find Out Which Registrar/Reseller Registered Your Domain Name

To manually find out who the registrar/reseller is for your domain name nip over to Domain Tools for example and check your WHOIS record. Look at the REGISTRAR DETAILS and you should see ICANN REGISTRAR together with ENOM Inc for example. If so, go to http://www.enom.com/help/, scroll down the help page a little and then use their Reseller Information Retrieval Tool to find out the name of the registrar/reseller responsible for you domain name.

This is only necessary if your WHOIS record does not specify the registrar/reseller in the REGISTRATION SERVICE PROVIDED BY section. If it does, you do not need to use the ENOM tool. For example. If the REGISTRATION SERVICE PROVIDED BY section states: namecheap.com as the registrar you would contact them directly for your domain name's EPP Code or your registrar account User Name & Password, if your current web hosting provider set up an account for you. Normally you do not get knowledge of this registrar account until you contact your current web hosting provider for your epp code.

Fig 1.0  Enter your domain name, the human verification code and then click on SUBMIT




Fig 1.1  The registrar/reseller details for your domain name

The above example shows that my domain name of websiteownershelp.com was registered by NetHosted Ltd, so if I wanted to transfer that domain name to a different web hosting provider I would need to ask nethosted.co.uk for my EPP Code.

If I had registered that domain name myself, directly, with NameCheap.com for example I would either contact them for the EPP Code or simply login to my NameCheap.com account to retrieve it via there control panel.

Make Sure Your Domain Name Is Registered With Your Contact Details

If you have registered your domain name, along with some web space for example, from a web hosting provider whereby you want to leave that provider; Make sure you get the registrar/reseller account details from them, if possible. So if they gave you the username and password of your NameCheap.com registrar/reseller account, which they set up for you, make sure that when you login to that account the Contact details (i.e. email address and other details) are in your name. If they are not, change them so that they are.

This is because the EPP Code will be sent to the email address associated with that account, which you want to be your email address and not your current web hosting provider's email address. One reason why the email address could be in their name is because you requested WHOIS protection for your domain name, which hides your details from the WHOIS service, whereby their email address was required. Regardless of WHOIS protection though the email address should be yours, but then again if you are new to the website game you naturally give control to your web hosting provider.

Retrieving Your EPP Code - Transferring Your Domain Name

Getting your domain name's EPP Code should then be a case of clicking on a few control panel buttons, whereby the EPP Code is then emailed to you.

When you receive that email you should login to your new web hosting provider account and fill out their Domain Transfer form, which requires the domain name you want transferring (i.e. websiteownershelp.com) and its EPP Code. Within 24 hours that domain name should be transferred, even though you may be told by your new web hosting provider that "Domain Name Transfer could take up to 5 Days".

DOMAIN NAME ADD-ON

An add-on domain name is identical to a redirected parked domain name, as described above, but with the main differences being that it has its own folder, its own control panel add-ons (i.e. ftp accounts and domain statistics) and its domain name displayed pure in a website browser. And because its domain name automatically points to its own folder by default there is no need to redirect the domain name.

To set up an add-on domain name begin by clicking on the ADDON DOMAINS button in your control panel.

Fig 1.2  Click on the ADDON DOMAINS button to continue

When the Addon Domains control panel appears (below) fill in its form. The first thing the form asks you to do is put a domain name into the NEW DOMAIN NAME edit box, which should be the domain name you want to use as an add-on domain name (in this example: websiteownershelp.com). From there, press the TAB keyboard key to have the next two edit boxes filled in for you. They will be filled with a FTP USER NAME and the DOCUMENT ROOT respectively.

The ftp user name is created from the add-on domain (i.e. websiteownershelp) and allows you ftp access to the ftp account that is created for your add-on folder, so that you can upload folders/files to it. The document root is the path name of the add-on folder, which is made up of public_html (from your root/main domain - i.e. websitecreationhelp) plus a forward slash plus your add-on domain name (websiteownershelp.com).

When those details are filled in, manually fill in the PASSWORD edit boxes with the password that will be used for all aspects of the add-on domain name. When the form has been filled in click on the ADD DOMAIN button to continue.

Fig 1.3  Click on the ADDON DOMAINS button to continue




Fig 1.4  Click on the GO BACK link to continue

After clicking on the ADD DOMAIN button click on the GO BACK link of the confirmation message that appears (above) to continue. Doing so will take you back to the main control panel where you may want to configure the ftp account that has just been set up for your add-on domain name. Read the how to create a ftp user account section for help on this.

The ADD-ON Domain websiteownershelp.com inside the public_html folder of websitecreationhelp.com

After clicking on the GO BACK link (Fig 1.4 above) you can connect to the folder of your new domain, via an ftp client, using either your main domain's ftp account or the ftp account just created for your new domain.

In this example the Add-On Domain (websiteownershelp.com folder) resides inside the public_html folder of my main domain (websitecreationhelp.com). This mean I can now treat websiteownershelp.com as a separate website and therefore upload website content into its folder. And that is the exact purpose of an Add-On Domain, to act as a separate website.

Above I was saying domain instead of domain name simply because Domain implies the whole thing (the domain name, its web space (folder) and so on), whereas Domain Name is specifically the website address. Domain is also used, loosely, though when mentioning a domain name (as above). It depends in which context you are referring to it.