Before getting into the details, let’s run through a few important points.

When you transfer a domain, the nameservers will stay the same. If the domain uses your old registrar’s default nameservers, they’ll stop responding to domain queries once it’s transferred. As a result, you’ll experience some downtime until you switch your domain to our Domain Name System (DNS).

Learn how to reduce downtime during transfers.

On the other hand, if you’re using a custom or hosting DNS, transferring your domain won’t cause downtime issues — DNS server settings stay the same during transfer.

Looking closer

Before submitting a transfer request with us, you’ll need to:

1. Unlock your domain by turning off the Domain Protection feature, and request a domain Auth code (sometimes called ‘Authorization Code’ or ‘EPP code’).
2. Turn off Private Registration (if you have this).

The following steps are to prepare your domain to transfer from Network Solutions.

1. How to unlock your domain and obtain an Auth code from Network Solutions

• Login to your Network Solutions Account Manager.
• On the left-side menu, select Domain Name:
  
  



• Choose the domain name you want to transfer (go to the next step if you have just one domain).
• Scroll down and click on the Transfer or Move Domain menu.
• Here, toggle off the Domain Locked switch to unlock the domain:
  
  



• Hit the Request Authorization Code button to request the authorization code for your domain name:
  
  



• Tick the box that you acknowledge the warning and choose Continue Transfer:
  
  

NOTE: The Auth code will be emailed to your primary contact in 3 days. If you do not receive the code, please contact Network Solutions support.

Important: If the Domain Locked switch or the Request Authorization Code option is inactive, it can indicate that your domain is not eligible for transfer yet. Most top-level domains cannot be transferred within 60 days after registration or previous successful transfers. Also, Network Solutions may place internal locks that prevent further transfers:

• For 30 days — when any of the following changes are made within 7 days after a password reset:
  1. Primary Contact name or email is updated;
  2. Primary Contact is replaced;
  3. WHOIS Administrative Contact name/email is updated;
  4. User IDs are merged.

  If this lock was placed on your domain, you can contact Network Solutions using your primary contact to review and remove it sooner.

• For 60 days — after changing the name or email of the domain owner.

  Unfortunately, this lock cannot be lifted sooner. If you are just about to make this change, consider keeping the domain owner’s contacts intact and update them at Namecheap after the transfer to avoid waiting.

2. How to turn off Private Registration

This step is required only if you purchased Private Registration for the domain name. If you don’t have any, just skip this step and proceed with the transfer on our side.

• Login to your Network Solutions Account Manager.
• On the left-side menu, select the Domain Name option:
  
  



• Choose the domain name in question (or, if you have only one domain, you may continue directly with the next step).
• Scroll down and go to the Domain Contacts menu:
  
  



• Find the Private Registration section and select the Turn Off button to disable private registration:
  
  

Once the domain name is unlocked and you have received your Auth code, you may initiate the transfer to Namecheap. After that, the transfer process takes up to 5–7 days for most TLDs. Learn more information on how to submit the transfer to us.

That’s it! We hope this tutorial was useful.