About a million years ago, back in the late DOS era, Microsoft Word used some bizarre, laughable commands. Remember when, before the File > Open command made its debut, you had to hit the Esc key, press T for transfer and L for load to access your data? Escape Transfer Load, or ETL to its (few) friends, became an in-joke about out-of-touch, engineer-driven systems.

This three-word sequence is exactly what I thought of when it recently came time to transfer a few of my expiring domains. Not only did the system seem unnecessarily complicated, it also gave new meaning to ETL as I looked for a way to escape the load of steps it takes to transfer a domain.

Others collect baseball cards or stamps; I collect Web sites.

I have a big collection of domains that includes several .coms, .nets, and .orgs, and even a .info or two. What can I say? Others collect baseball cards or stamps; I collect Web sites. Some of these sites reside at registrars that charge $15 to $35 per year for registration, so I decided to transfer them to cheaper registrars that charge only $7 or $8 apiece.

Different standards
The process sounds simple at first blush: you go to a new registrar, register to transfer your domain, pay your fee, and answer a few verification e-mails. A few days later, your domain should reappear safe and sound at its new, cheaper home.

Here's how it actually went down. I attempted to transfer some .com, .info, and .org domains from Catalog.com and DirectNIC to GoDaddy and Dotster. All four registrars are ICANN-accredited, so I expected smooth sailing (naive fool that I am).

One transfer came off without a hitch: my .com domain slipped from DirectNIC to GoDaddy in two days. GoDaddy took my credit card number and sent a confirmation e-mail my way. I confirmed, DirectNIC asked for verification, I confirmed again, and the domain flew to cheaper climes without incident.

So far, so good. But then I discovered that transferring .org and .info domains takes an extra and somewhat embarrassing step.

Breaking up is hard to do
It turns out that you can't transfer a .org, .info, .biz, or .us domain to another registrar without entering a special confirmation password called an Auth code. Here's where things got sticky, because nobody--at least no one from the six registrars with which I'm registered--is very clear about how you get hold of an Auth code. They say you need to check with the registrar of record, but when you log on to its Web site, you'll never see a FAQ telling you where to get one. (A registrar isn't about to tell you how to transfer your business elsewhere.)

My hunt for this Auth code from Catalog.com ended in a call to technical support where I informed them I was firing their employer. Then I asked for the code I needed to fire them. In return, I got courtesy and the information--plus the Big Guilt treatment. ("I can tell you the code, Mr. Lake, but first, would you mind telling us why you're dissatisfied with the services we provide?")

A registrar isn't about to tell you how to transfer your business elsewhere.

With the code in hand, I returned to my new registrars (Dotster and GoDaddy) and typed in the open sesame of domain transfer. I got the obligatory "Confirm you want to do this" message from the two winning registrars. One of the losing registrars asked for confirmation the following day, the other didn't. I didn't hear anything more from any concerned party for a week, when suddenly, both the domains appeared at their new homes, safe and sound. Why no message from one of the losing registrars? Beats me. Why did one domain transfer in two days and two others take a week? Beats me even harder. Why can't things be simpler? Hey, quit beating me! I just don't know!

Of course, I'm probably griping too much. Back when the original domain registrar, Network Solutions, first lost its monopoly on domain registration, transferring your .coms to another registrar was a bureaucratic nightmare. You needed to submit a wild collection of documentation akin to notarized affidavits, a blood sample, a note from your mother excusing you from gym, all the while using obscure keystrokes to open all of the documents involved. It was about then that people began referring to the original domain registrar as Notwork Solutions.

At least nowadays, the problems are of only a minor order. But there shouldn't be any problems at all. This domain transfer business has been going on for five years now--an eternity in Internet years. C'mon registrars--get your act together. If you can't make this process consistent, we'll have to start complaining to ICANN, and you don't want ICANN breathing down your necks, do you?