Tucows Domains: registrar record, IANA ID and transfers

About Tucows Domains

Tucows Domains is a Canadian registrar based in Toronto. It runs the OpenSRS wholesale platform, which many hosting companies resell, and the retail brand Hover. A record that names Tucows Domains Inc. therefore often belongs to a customer of a reseller.

What the record looks like

A gTLD WHOIS answer carries the two "Registrar" lines below; RDAP carries the same facts as an entity with the role "registrar" and a public ID of type "IANA Registrar ID". The domain here is a reserved example; the registrar lines read "Tucows Domains Inc." and 69.

Domain Name: EXAMPLE.COM
Registrar: Tucows Domains Inc.
Registrar IANA ID: 69
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited

RDAP: entity with role "registrar"
  vcard fn: Tucows Domains Inc.
  publicIds: [{ "type": "IANA Registrar ID", "identifier": "69" }]

Country-code registries do not use IANA IDs and often print a shorter or local form of the registrar name, or a registry-specific handle. Some publish no registrar at all.

Finding the transfer (auth) code at Tucows Domains

Tucows Domains is mostly used through resellers and hosting companies. If you bought the domain from one of them, the code is requested in that company's control panel or from its support, not from Tucows Domains directly. Only customers with a direct Tucows Domains account request it there.

For gTLDs the registrar must provide the code within five calendar days of a valid request and may not make it conditional on payment for other services. The code is a password for the domain: send it only to the registrar you are moving to.

Transferring a domain away from Tucows Domains

1. Check the dates. A gTLD domain cannot be transferred during the 60 days after it was registered or after a previous transfer between registrars. Many registrars also apply a 60-day lock after a change of registrant unless you opted out beforehand.
2. Check the status. If the record shows clientTransferProhibited, remove the transfer lock in your Tucows Domains account (or ask the reseller). Statuses that begin with "server" are set by the registry and need the registrar's help.
3. Make sure the registrant e-mail address on the domain works: notices about the transfer are sent there.
4. Request the transfer (auth) code from Tucows Domains as described above.
5. Start the transfer at the new registrar and enter the code. Payment there normally adds one year to a gTLD registration.
6. The transfer is then pending for up to five calendar days. Tucows Domains may let you approve it sooner; if nobody objects, it completes when the period ends.
7. Afterwards, look the domain up again: the registrar line and the IANA ID should have changed, and the nameservers should be the same as before.

Transferring a domain to Tucows Domains

1. At the current registrar: confirm that the domain is past its 60-day lock, remove clientTransferProhibited, and request the transfer (auth) code.
2. Note the current nameservers and, if DNS is hosted by the current registrar, copy the zone first. DNS hosted by the losing registrar may stop after the transfer.
3. Start the transfer in your Tucows Domains account (or with the reseller you use) and enter the code.
4. Approve any confirmation message you receive, and wait: the losing registrar has five calendar days to release the domain or object.
5. When the transfer completes, check the record: registrar name, IANA ID, expiry date and nameservers.

These steps describe ICANN’s Transfer Policy for generic TLDs (.com, .net, .org and the new gTLDs). Country-code extensions set their own rules: some have no auth code, no 60-day lock, or a different confirmation step. OrbitProbe does not carry out transfers; it only shows what the public record says.