This post is about my personal experience on how to transfer primary domain Bluehost to ServerFreak.
My hosting account with Bluehost is going to be expired by early November 2015.
But because of the present high currency exchange rate, Malaysian Ringgit to US Dollar, I am compelled to switch to another cheaper web hosting company.
If I am still using Bluehost, I need to pay about more than RM 600 per year for hosting service.
Another reason is since most of my online traffic is from Malaysia to my more popular blog, I decided to host it locally for a change.
After some scouting around the Internet, I decided to try out this Malaysia web hosting called ServerFreak.
I signed up for the Value plan which cost me RM 190 per year. With the six per cent (6%) GST, in total it came up to RM 201.40 per year nett.
Note: There is NO charge for domain transfer.
Here I have a written a comprehensive easy-to-understand tutorial with minimum use of jargon and terminology.
I avoid using phrases like:
– to assign the given nameservers to the domain.
– subscribed to the hosting
– to initiate your nameservers
Transfer Primary Domain Bluehost Serverfreak
There are three (3) main steps.
i) Transfer primary domain out from Bluehost
ii) Migrate primary domain to ServerFreak
iii) Point nameservers to ServerFreak at Bluehost
Before you can submit to ServerFreak to do the domain transferring, there are a couple of things you need to do:
1. You have to get your EPP code (authorization code) from your Bluehost. (will be explained in STEP ONE)
2. Make sure the domain with Bluehost is UNLOCKED. (will be explained in STEP ONE)
3. The domain administrative email is your email address and it is accessible.
Because once they initiate the transfer, a transfer authorization email will be send to you and you need to click on the link to approve the transfer process.
* Find out how to check whether the domain administrative email is your email address, click HERE.
4. Make sure your domain is not expired. Domain transfer can be done at least 2 weeks before expiry date.
5. Disable your WHOIS protection.
This is for those of you who use the privacy protection service.
*To read this tutorial on how to disable WHOIS protection, click HERE.
STEP ONE
How To Transfer Primary Domain Out Of Bluehost
1. Log into your Bluehost Control Panel.
2. Click the Domain Manager icon listed under domain management section.
3. It will take you to a new page and you can see all your domains (both primary and addon) on the lower left hand corner.
4. To transfer your primary domain, just click on the small box next to your primary domain.
5. A small tick will appear inside the box.
6. On the right side, you can see the name of all your primary domain and a row of tabs above.
7. First click on “lock” tab.
8. Next click on the “unlock your domain” button.
9. Then click on the “transfer EPP” tab.
10. Now you a row of number under “EPP Code:“.
11. Copy out the EPP code onto the Notepad.
STEP TWO
How To Migrate Primary Domain Name To ServerFreak
1. Log into ServerFreak.
2. Hover your cursor over “Web Hosting“.
3. Click on “Linux Shared Hosting“.
4. You can see five different plans: Basic, Value, Semi-Pro, Professional and Ultimate.
5. Select whichever plan that suits you blogs.
6. Then click on the red color “Order” button.
7. It will take you to a new page.
8. Select or click on the small circle next to the remark:
“I want to transfer my domain to ServerFreak Technologies Sdn Bhd“.
9. Type in your primary domain in the box provided.
10. Next click on the blue color “Click to Continue” button below.
11. It will take you to another new page titled “Product Configuration“.
12. Here you will see these three sections: Product/Service, Billing Cycle and Addons.
13. If you just want to pay for only one year and do not want the paid addons services, Emailing arching and SSL Certificate, then ignore them.
*Email archiving allows you to store a copy of every single email that you send/receive, ensuring that you won’t accidentally delete any emails.
*SSL(Secure Sockets Layer) Certificate is a data file that help to
create a secure, encrypted connection between a browser and a server.
14. Then click the green color “Add to Cart” button.
15. It will go another new page titled “Domains Configuration“.
16. Now copy the EPP code which you got it in STEP ONE, and paste it onto the empty box.
17. Remember to click on the small boxes nest to DNS Management(FREE!) and Email Forwarding(FREE!). In other words, check the boxes.
18. Click the “Update Cart” button.
19. Finally it take you to another page, where it will show you the total amount you need to pay for your purchase.
20. Click on the “Checkout” button.
21. Now you need to do your payment.
22. For Malaysians, you can pay by cash, cheque, credit card or online payment.
* More detailed ServerFreak billing information.
23. If you want to pay by PayPal, you need to select PayPal MYR.
Initially when I selected PayPal, it came out to be US Dollar 70.67, which is much more than the amount I need to pay, that is RM 201.40.
Then I contacted ServerFreak staff and I was told to select PayPal MYR. And it showed the supposed payment of RM201.40.
24. Once you made your payment, you will received your payment receipt via email.
25. Then you also received an email from ServerFreak with your account information that include your domain, username, password, nameserver, temporary Control Panel link and others.
*Take note of the username and password, as you need them to sign into the cPanel later.
STEP THREE
How To Point Nameservers In Bluehost To ServerFreak
26. Login to Bluehost Control Panel.
27. Click the word “Domain” at the top of the page.
28. Choose your primary domain name from the list of domains.
29. Then click the “name servers” tab.
30. Select Use “Custom Nameservers“.
31. Enter these ServerFreak nameservers:
dns1.serverfreak.biz
dns2.serverfreak.biz
in the boxes provided.
32. Click the “save nameserver settings” button.
That’s all. Now you have to wait for 24-72 hours for the DNS propagation of name servers to fully propagate.
DNS propagation means to update all the DNS servers around the world to the new DNS updates.
33. Then you will get an email from webic.cc informing you that they have received a request from ServerFreak Technologies Sdn Bhd for them to become the new registrar of record.
Together in this email, there is a password which you need to use to complete the Registrar transfer.
34. You will receive another email where there is a link which you need to click to verify your domain name.
35. Once you have done that, you will receive another email informing you that the transfer has been successfully executed.
This is the whole procedure of my own personal experience transferring my primary domain from Bluehost to ServerFreak.
If you have addon domains with Bluehost, then you have to point their nameservers to ServerFreak.
As for my case, my addon domains are with GoDaddy. So I need to go over to my GoDaddy account to change the nameservers to ServerFreak.
To find out how to change nameservers at GoDaddy, click HERE.