Internet Guide: Transferring Your Domain Name from Yahoo! Web Hosting

So you want to cancel your Yahoo! Web Hosting/Small Business account but you don't want to lose your domain name, what should you do? This article will give you a step by step guide to transfer your domain to another register before you cancel your account.

In order to transfer your domain name, your account needs to be over 60 days old. This is due to ICANN protocol. (ICANN is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the governing body responsible for the global coordination of unique identifiers used across the internet.)

Once your account qualifies for domain transfer the process is fairly simple.

Yahoo! Web Hosting has a security feature that locks domain names. In order to transfer your domain name you will need to unlock this feature. Simply go to the Domain Control Panel on your web hosting account page and click Edit Domain Locking. You now have the option to lock or unlock your domain name. Select Unlock Domain.

Once you have unlocked your domain name, you will need to verify your administrative information. Yahoo! Web hosting gives you the option to keep your domain contact information private. With this option your administrative contact information does not appear in the Whois internet domain records.

Before transferring your domain name, you will need to need to make this information public. Once again, you will begin at the Domain Control Panel. From there you will click View/Edit Your Domain Registration and then select Make Information Public.

Make sure your administrative email is correct. Your new domain provider will be using the Whois information to email a confirmation your domain transfer. Updating this information can take up to 24 hours so you will need to do this in advance of transferring your domain. You can use Whois.net to make sure your information has become public.

Finally, you will need to get your authorization code. Your new provider will need this to verify the move. At the Domain Control Panel click View Your Authorization Code. This page will display your unique domain authorization code. Keep a copy of it for your records.

Now you're ready to contact your new provider. Once you receive confirmation from your new provider you'll be able to cancel your Yahoo! Web Hosting account without losing your unique domain name.

It's important to keep in mind that once you cancel your Yahoo! Web Hosting service you will lose all files and emails associated with that account, so you should create back up files of any important information prior to canceling your account.