How Can I Transfer my Domain Name and Website to Web Hosting Canada?

By transferring your domain name (or website) to Web Hosting Canada you'll be benefiting from one of Canada's fastest and most reliable hosting platforms, backed by our 24/7 support service. Make the switch today and our team will help transfer your website's content for you at no additional charge. Simply get in touch with our support team and provide us with your provider's logins to get the ball rolling.

Consult the steps below for instructions on how to migrate your domain name and hosting account yourself.

TO TRANSFER YOUR DOMAIN NAME TO WEB HOSTING CANADA (REGISTRAR TRANSFER)

To transfer your domain name only (without additional services such as web hosting or site builder) enter the domain name to transfer in our domain name transfer form.

To transfer your domain along with your website, start by choosing either a web hosting or site builder plan on your choice. When ordering, select the option I already have a domain name.

Once your order is complete, check your email for instructions on how to start and complete your domain transfer. Note that a domain transfer may take up to 5 days to complete.

Once the domaine transfer is complete. you'll be able to change your DNS (nameservers) directly from your Client Area.

In order to accelerate the transfer of your domain, please note:

You might need to update your domain name settings with your current registrar in order to ensure that it is properly configured to allow a domain transfer to take place. All of the settings here can either be obtained/changed by contacting your current provider by phone or email and simply asking for these changes, or by using an online interface that offers the option of changing things yourself. Here's what needs to be done:

1. You must obtain the Transfer Key (also called the EPP key or Transfer Authorization code) for your domain. The key is usually emailed to the administrative contact upon request.
2. You need to be able to consult the email address that's currently set as the domain's Administrative Contact in what is often referred to as the WHOIS database.
3. Your domain must NOT have a transfer lock active. You need to disable the transfer lock if it is active.
4. You should disable any privacy protection service, if active on your domain, as it might prevent you from receiving the transfer validation link by email
5. You cannot transfer domains that have been registered or transferred less than 60 days ago. If it was, you will need to wait a minimum of 60 days to place your transfer order. We recommend skipping ahead to the web hosting transfer steps below and performing your domain transfer order later.

TO TRANSFER YOUR HOSTING (WEBSITE CONTENTS) TO WEB HOSTING CANADA

Our team can now handle the transfer of your website from most other hosting providers at no additional cost. To request this service, simply get in touch with us by opening a ticket from the Support section of our Client Area and provide working credentials to your current provider's control panel.

If you prefer to handle the transfer of your hosting account yourself, you'll likely need to follow some or all of these basic guidelines:

1. Order the web hosting package that best suits your needs, while making sure you've selected the "transfer" option for your domain (see procedure above).
2. Once you have made your payment, wait for our confirmation e-mail containing all the connection details (this is normally sent shortly after your payment).
3. Connect to our servers by FTP (or any other file publishing method you prefer), using the Permanent Address we provided for your account. This way you can transfer files to your account before pointing your domain name to us, thus decreasing downtime for your visitors.
4. Upload all your files in the "public_html" directory.
5. If you had email addresses with your other host, re-create those email addresses on our servers using the Add/Remove Email Address feature of our cPanel.
6. ADVANCED - If you had any databases with your other host, copy them to our servers as well. You will need to re-create the database on our server using the cPanel (note that due to some cPanel restrictions your database name might be different from its name with your other host). Then you may export the contents of your database from your other host and import it into your new database on our servers. This can be done quite easily with the phpmyadmin tool.
7. ADVANCED - If needed, update your website's configuration files and scripts in order to ensure all settings are correct, particularly where they refer to database connection credentials.
8. Test your website using the permanent address provided, and fix any bugs you discover.
9. You're now ready to point your domain name to our servers! This can be done by changing your domain's DNS to the ones provided in your welcome email.
10. Wait up to 24 hours for the new DNS information to propagate, and you're done!

Questions or problems? Contact our technical support team for assistance. If you would like our team to handle the transfer of your website from start to finish, just get in touch with us.

Article ID: #HC5120