Can I ditch my old web hosting service without "letting them know"?
May 2, 2012 7:15 PM   Subscribe

Can I ditch my old web hosting service without "letting them know"?

My friend and I purchased hosting services for our domain through this company. We never hosted anything on the site.

We've gone separate ways (a rough disagreement) and he gave me the hosting login info - which conveniently doesn't work. I tried to let the company know of my situation, but they require the last four digits of CC number, etc. I'd rather not get in touch with my friend who has this info.

Can I just bring my domain to a different hosting service without getting a "release" or "transfer" from the current hosting company? I don't think so, but worth finding out...

Thanks!
posted by ptsampras14 to Computers & Internet (4 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
If Liquid Web is your domain registrar, you'll need to unlock the domain there and obtain a transfer code. If they are only the host, you can sign in to the registrar and set the domain to use different nameservers, with Liquid Web none the wiser.
posted by djb at 7:20 PM on May 2, 2012 [2 favorites]


Not if the domain is locked. You can check using the WHOIS service of whatever registrar is used by your hosting company.
posted by jgreco at 7:20 PM on May 2, 2012


Few different things at work here

1. Who owns the domain itself, that is who is the registrar? You can use a WHOIS tool like this one to see who the contacts for the domain are
2. Who was hosting it? I assume this is the company you linked to. Sometimes the registrar and the host are the same, sometimes they are not.

As an example let's say I have registered domains with Gandi (the registrar) and host them with dreamhost (the old host) and I want to switch to pair.com (the new host). I have to contact, in that situation, Gandi, to tell them that I am switching from dreamhost to a pair. Dreamhost has no say in the matter as long as I can be contacted via the email address for the owner of the the domain.

If you are the owner of the domain [you and not your friend] and the contact information for the domain has your email address on it and it's not "transfer locked" you may actually be able to do that.
posted by jessamyn at 7:23 PM on May 2, 2012 [1 favorite]


First, I am not sure that liquidweb is a domain registrar, I think if the domain isn't registered elsewhere then most probably that liquidweb has registered the domain on your behalf, but it is not by itself the domain registrar.

Yes, You need to be able login to your control panel to unlock the domain and receive the transfer code.

The best thing to do is to find a solution with your "friend" or seek legal advice. I think that domain/business ownership can be proved by other means other than whois information.
posted by perpetual_dream at 2:21 PM on May 5, 2012


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