Site Transfer Issues

[Guest J. E. Iaconetti]

Hi, Bill,

I've ben hosted by featureprice.com for about 2 years, but they suddenly don't recognize my username, password, NOTHING...I have no way to even contact their live OR online support people, and the customer service line is zero help...very upsetting/infuriating.

 

I'm ready to transfer my site to totalchoice, but am i likely to have problems getting featureprice to release or transfer my site to you? (it's like they literally dont' know i exist anymore) Should I bite the bullet and just create a new name for my site and upload all my info to totalchoice?

 

all feedback and help greatly appreciated!

many thanks,

JEI

[Lianna]

Wow, this could get really long and drawn out. I know that I battled with those guys for almost a month on the transfer of one domain I had originally registerd through them...and my username and passwords DID work. Problem was that everytime I changed the contact info, they would change it back without any notice whatsoever. So I would never get the authorization requests from the destination registrar, they'd always go to that BDNS@ address they list with all of their domains. (Infuriating was the tip of that iceberg. Can't imagine what you're going through.)

 

Here's my suggestion. Register a new domain name here and buy a plan here. Upload your stuff and notify as many people as you can of the change. If you have ANY access to your existing site, then upload a redirect page to send visitors to your new domain. Then go fight your battle. When it's resolved, you can transfer the domain.

 

From everything that I've read recently about your current host, there are class actions in the works, there are screaming mad people and very little hope of any resolution.....MyHostSucks.com has an entire forum category strictly for the steam about them. I guess I got out just in time (last October) as things appear to have gotten very rough since then.

 

I feel for ya.

Lianna

[TCH-JimE]

Hi,

 

Do you have your site backed up elsewhere? If its only pictures or files (no CGI, ASP, PHP kinda thing) then there are I have a program which can litterally "grab" a website from its web host.

 

Otherwise, do what Lianna says and just create a new one here.

 

When you say transfer, do you mean transfer the dot.com too?

 

Jim

[Guest J.E. Iaconetti]

I'm pleasantly shocked! useful replies, and so quickly...Thanks to you both for responding.

 

Yes, I want to transfer my site name, domain name, URL (all the same--it's a simple site) here to totalchoice.

 

It would be a giant hassle to get all my stationery reprinted, although ti's worth it to be rid of featureprice.com. I have zero confidence that I'll even be able to let them know I'm changing anything--as I mentioned, they just do not recognize me at all, and I have no reason to think they'll recognize my request to transfer the domain name.

 

Shall I just go ahead, sign up for an account here, try the transfer, and hope for the best?

 

Uploading the files is simple--ti's mostly text (I'm a writer) wtih a few photos. My concern is that when people try to visit the existing site name, they'll get this NEW site (I tried to change a small mistake on my existing site, which is when i realized featureprice didn't recognize me any more.) Hope that makes sense...

and thanks again!

JEI

[Guest J.E.Iaconetti]

Jim and Lianna,

It just occurred to me...I did NOT originally register my domain name with featureprice--i registered it with InterNIC, at the time one of the only registrars. Does that make a difference? I had a friend with a server hosting me for a while, then transferred it to featureprice.

 

And though i'm reasonably computer literate, I'd jsut as soon upload each of my pages and files myself rather than try to learn a new program to "grab" it, so to speak. Although I see someone recommended godaddy.com -- any thoughts there?

 

many thanks,

JEI

[bethohio3]

The real question about transferring your domain is who owns it and who is the registrar.

 

To find out who the registrar is: http://www.internic.net/whois.html

To find out who the contacts are: http://www.networksolutions.com/cgi-bin/whois/whois

 

There are a couple of different "pieces" to this.

 

1) who is the registrar (Network Solutions, GoDaddy, etc.)

2) who is the administrative contact

3) who is the technical contact

 

If you are one of the contacts, you should be able to work directly with the registrar to remove any reference to FeaturePrice and also to set the domain name servers to whatever TotalChoice tells you to. If you are not one of the contacts, and FeaturePrice is the only one, you're going to have a much tougher time. There are several threads at www.yourhostsucks.com that suggest that FP used a standard password scheme with their registrar that you can probably break.

 

As long as you can make the changes, you don't have to transfer registrars unless you want to. Personally, I recommend that you retain control over your domain name--make sure that you are the contact who needs to make changes--that way, no matter what happens, you can keep control of your domain.

 

Once you've reset the domain name servers to TCH, you should be able to upload your files to your new site. As long as you have copies of your files on your own machine, you'll just FTP them to your TCH site just as you've done with other hosting services.

 

I'm also a refugee from FeaturePrice--you will love TotalChoice--I promise.

 

--Beth

[Lianna]

Oh, yes! Your situation is already looking better if you have the domain name registered through some one other than FeaturePrice! I am sorry as I assumed that the domain name you were talking about was a domain name registered through them when you signed up for your account (as I had).

 

Follow Beth's directions (which rock by the way) and find out exactly who the registrar is. There are many listings in the Help Site here at TCH for registrars and how to change your Name Servers.

 

Good luck to you. Please let us know if there is anything you need help with.

 

Lianna