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I want to transfer my domain name from Plusnet to my account with iCloud.com

chaswick
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I want to transfer my domain name from Plusnet to my account with iCloud.com

Currently I use Plusnet for my principal email service, but I want to move away from Plusnet and use my iCloud account instead. The problem I have is that I have a domain name that I will need to use for the iCloud service, but it is registered to Plusnet. There doesn't seem to be a simple procedure for an amateur like me to follow. Are there simple instructions somewhere that I can follow? Can anyone help please?

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MisterW
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Re: I want to transfer my domain name from Plusnet to my account with iCloud.com

Are you referring to an <account name>.plus.com domain or your own domain but registered and hosted by Plusnet ?

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

chaswick
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Re: I want to transfer my domain name from Plusnet to my account with iCloud.com

It's my own domain that is registered and hosted by Plusnet. <xxxxx.co.uk>

MisterW
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Re: I want to transfer my domain name from Plusnet to my account with iCloud.com

In that case you just need to arrange where you are moving it to and get their IPSTAG .

A staff member will spot this thread, ask for the new IPSTAG and request the transfer via Netops.

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

chaswick
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Re: I want to transfer my domain name from Plusnet to my account with iCloud.com

That sounds great, thank you. I have to confess I don't know what an IPSTAG is, but presumably I have to ask iCloud.com for this?

acr
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Re: I want to transfer my domain name from Plusnet to my account with iCloud.com

These are the relevant links from Apple Support:-

 

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/102540 

 

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/icloud/mma473945269/icloud 

 

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/102374 

 

I have never done it myself but from the bottom link you need to change the DNS records rather than the IPSTAG. My understanding is that Plusnet do not support this so presumably you will need to transfer the domain elsewhere (using the IPSTAG) and then change the DNS records for the domain. You then need to set it up in iCloud+. It is not available in iCloud (only iCloud+).

Hopefully someone with better knowledge than me can confirm this. 

MisterW
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Re: I want to transfer my domain name from Plusnet to my account with iCloud.com

I have never done it myself but from the bottom link you need to change the DNS records rather than the IPSTAG. My understanding is that Plusnet do not support this so presumably you will need to transfer the domain elsewhere (using the IPSTAG) and then change the DNS records for the domain. You then need to set it up in iCloud+. It is not available in iCloud (only iCloud+).

@chaswick as @acr says, that's about right...

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

Baldrick1
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Re: I want to transfer my domain name from Plusnet to my account with iCloud.com

Moderator's note:
Thread moved from Email to Everything Else

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jcs1167957
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Re: I want to transfer my domain name from Plusnet to my account with iCloud.com

I have recently done almost exactly the same thing. In my case my domain was registered to, and by, another person (a friend, not Plusnet) but Plusnet hosted both my email and my website. I hope the following helps.

The first step is to take ownership of the domain. This is managed by a Domain Registrar. If you are staying with the same registrar it SHOULD be easy to change ownership but, in my case, although myself and the person managing my domain did everything that should have been necessary it just would not transfer but changing registrars from IONOS to 123reg proved to be very easy and quick. IONOS also had tried to help. Now I have full ownership I could easily change registrars again.

So far there was no lost of service while the domain registration was changed! I still pointed to the Plusnet name servers.

The next stage was to move my website to a new host. In my case this was not the same organisation as the Registrar. The data was easy to do and changing the DNS records to point to my new website was then easy. I took the opportunity to add the necessary certificates to enable HTTPS support which was also easy. I never tried to do this with Plusnet. I then needed to change the DNS records so that the web services pointed to my new website but the email temporarily remained with Plusnet.

The final stage was to create new email boxes on my new host and then change the DNS records to point everything to the new server. That was also easy. My email and web site are now hosted on an entirely different server but also now under my full control.

The only hard part was finding how to remove my domain email from the plusnet server. I asked for help via this forum to do that. There appeared to be no other way. Actually the request had to be made via a private message to a Plusnet admin who i had corresponded with beforehand via this forum and he was kind enough to do that for me. It probably would have done no harm to leave them there however.

I now ONLY use Plusnet for supplying telephone and basic broadband but I can now move both of these services without disrupting my web and email or standard telephone. With the recent DNS issues I am looking at whether to change ISP and ditch Plusnet completely but unfortunately I still have a year to go on my phone and broadband contract. I tried to determine what the penalty would be (with the recent poor service being the reason for the change) but have not yet had an answer. They offered a discount but, with my current referrals discounts, that amounted to just £0.40 per month saving!

I have already ditched Plusnet for my mobile phone and have a contract at far below the price of the discounted rate on EE that Plusnet were offering and now pay just £3.90 per month on a rolling monthly contract.

Plusnet used to be so easy to deal with if any support issues arose! I had no issues recommending them to anyone who asked. Regrettably it is evident that this  is no longer the case. When I initially joined Plusnet in 2003 they were an excellent service provider!

 

chaswick
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Re: I want to transfer my domain name from Plusnet to my account with iCloud.com

Gosh, thanks JCS1167957 - what a comprehensive and interesting account. I am hoping to have the opportunity this weekend to sit down and tackle my problem, and I am sure your step by step guide will be most useful. 😊

jcs1167957
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Re: I want to transfer my domain name from Plusnet to my account with iCloud.com

I would recommend taking ownership of your domain first. This can, and should, initially still point to the Plusnet DNS servers and I ran this way for several weeks before transferring my Website and email. In principle this should be very easy.

If Plusnet are the registered owner of your domain then they have to agree to the domain transfer. You can easily find the domain owner with services such as https://www.whois.com/ and enter your domain name. In my case this was owned by a friend. I wanted initially to keep the same registrar, IONOS. This failed to transfer to me as it was recorded as owned by another party. That person did what they were told to do by IONOS but it still did not work. I tried an alternative registrar and that change took place with no issues. There was no detectable outage as  the domain switched  over. It can take many hours before the DNS records are updated world wide.

Once you have domain ownership then you are in control and you can set up your email accounts and website before you switch the name servers away from Plusnet. That part was all easy but remember this switch might take a while so some remote uses will still access the Plusnet website and Plusnet may receive some emails. It typically takes an hour or two for the DNS records to be propagated but this can take up to 48 hours worldwide. Keep any website unchanged for that time and watch your Plusnet mail accounts via webmail to look for any strays that have not routed to the correct place. I dd not get any!

You will need to get a (free) certificate to use HTTPS and that was easy as well (at least with the PLESK server that host my web and email). Your new registrar can probably help you with all of this. I actually used the server owner for advice as he lives over the road from me! His "fee" is he gets technical support from me.

I set up all my mail accounts and initially set them to SNMP/POP3 as that was what I used on Plusnet. I later changed them all to IMAP.