Pointing your domain at your new site

Every domain provider has the same two settings, though they put them in different places and call them slightly different things. If you cannot find them, send us a screenshot of the page you are on and we will point at the right thing.

This is the guide we send our own clients when we move a site for them, published here in case it is useful to anyone else. The steps are the same whoever does the work — if you are doing this yourself, ignore the parts about replying to our email. The warning below applies either way.

Please wait until we tell you we are ready. Before you change anything we copy your existing settings — your email, your calendars, anything else already using this domain — onto our side. If the change is made before that is done, your email stops arriving. We will email you when it is safe to go ahead.

Changing your nameservers

  1. Sign in wherever you bought the domain.
  2. Find the domain and open its settings. The section is usually called DNS, Nameservers or Domain settings.
  3. Look for Nameservers — sometimes written NS, or described as where your DNS is hosted. You want the option for custom or third-party nameservers rather than the provider's own.
  4. Replace what is there with the two nameserver addresses you were given, and save.
  5. Tell whoever is handling the move that it is done — if that is us, reply to our email.

It can take a few hours for the change to be seen everywhere, and up to two days in the worst case. Nothing on your side needs doing while you wait.

If you would like us to look after the domain entirely

This part is optional, and it can only happen after the step above — the domain has to be pointing at us before its registration can move. It is two jobs wherever you bought the domain, and every provider has both. We have not written steps for yours, so these describe what to look for rather than which menu it is under. Send us a screenshot if you cannot find something.

Unlock the domain

  1. Open the domain's settings, the same place you found the nameservers.
  2. Look for Lock, Transfer lock, Registrar lock or Theft protection. It is on by default on almost every domain.
  3. Switch it off. Some providers ask you to confirm who you are first.

Leave it off only until the move is done — it exists to stop somebody else moving your domain, and some providers switch it back on by themselves after a few weeks.

Get the authorisation code and send it to us

  1. In the same settings, look for Transfer, Transfer out or Transfer to another registrar.
  2. Ask for the code. It may be called an auth code, an EPP code, an authinfo code or a transfer code — they all mean the same thing. Some providers show it on screen; some email it to the address registered on the domain.
  3. Send the code to whoever is handling the transfer — if that is us, reply to our email and paste it in.

The code is usually only valid for a few days, so send it when you have it rather than saving it for later.

A domain cannot be transferred in the first 60 days after it was registered, or within 60 days of a previous transfer. That is an ICANN rule and nobody can waive it — if the option is missing or the code will not appear, that is usually why.

Last checked against your registrar's own documentation on 14 August 2026. If anything on your screen does not match what is written here, tell us and we will fix this page.