Transferring New Domains

Question

I have no experience in hosting my own website, and I think I have screwed myself.

I just registered myself a new domain (doesn't matter what it is) with HostGator, and set up an account, taking advantage of their current sale prices. I then realized that their tools are pretty far behind (python 3.2?!) and that getting access to a shell account with root permissions would be considerably more expensive than the tier of service I signed up for.

Now, on the upside, I still have 29 days to take advantage of their moneyback guarantee.

On the downside, it seems that I can't transfer the domain (per ICANN rules, not Hostgator) for another 59 days.

Specific questions:

• Is my understanding of ICANN rules correct?
• Is there any way to transfer that domain to a more reasonable service in less time than that, so I can actually get good use out of it?

Answer 1

Yes, your understanding of the 60 day lock rule is correct.

No need to transfer the domain. Find new hosting and they will provide nameservers for your hosting. Then in hostgator look for DNS or Nameservers or something like that and update the nameserver settings.

Once the new nameserver information propagates (usually a few hours or less) your site and all services will be at the new host.

There is a lot more complexity available with DNS settings, but that is enough to get you going without overwhelming you.