If you already own a domain name, you can use it for your ArtSites website. This article explains the two ways to do that and what we need from you.
Our recommendation: let us manage it
We urge you to transfer your domain name to us, so we manage it for you. There are two reasons.
- It does not lapse. A domain name that is not renewed is released, and anyone can then register it. People who buy up lapsed names often take ones that had visitors, and your website would go down with it. When we manage the name, we renew it.
- It avoids problems from changes made on your own. A setting changed at a registrar, often with good intentions, can take your website offline. When we manage the name, we know what is set and why.
You can keep your domain name at your own registrar (the company where you registered it). That is possible, but it is more work and more risk for you, because renewing it and keeping it safe stay your responsibility.
Way 1: transfer it to us (recommended)
Contact us and tell us your domain name. We tell you what we need, which is usually two things.
- The domain name unlocked. Registrars lock a domain name by default so that no one can move it without you. In your registrar's account, find the domain name's settings and turn the lock off.
- The transfer code. This is a code from your registrar, sometimes called an authorization code or EPP code, that proves you are allowed to move the name. Your registrar gives it to you from the same settings.
Send us the code promptly, because transfer codes expire. We usually make your website work on your domain name before the transfer finishes, so there is no gap, and a transfer can take up to a week. The exact screens differ from one registrar to the next, and your registrar's own help covers them.
Way 2: keep it at your registrar
You keep the registration and the renewals. We give you the settings your domain name needs, called nameservers, which tell the internet that your website is at ArtSites. You change them in your registrar's account, again in the domain name's settings. A change can take a few hours, and sometimes longer, to reach everyone.
Sometimes we need to move to different nameservers and ask you to change them again, or back to the earlier ones. It is a change of the same kind, and we give you the values each time. If you would rather not do it, ask us to help.
Your domain name renews at your registrar, not with us. Keep it renewed, or your website goes down with it.
If you have lost access to your registrar account
You need that account to unlock the name or get the transfer code. Use your registrar's own account recovery first, since they are the only ones who can restore it. Tell us if you are stuck, and we will tell you what we can do while you recover it.
If you have email at your domain name
Email addresses at your domain name depend on how the name is set up. Tell us you have them before anything changes, and we will say what to expect.
More about domain names is in Your Domain Name. Your website works at your domain name with or without the www. in front. If a visitor cannot open it, see If Your Website Won't Open for Someone.