I have a couple domains I registered years ago using whoever was cheap at the time which are about to run out. They were very low budget operations and I had a lot of trouble getting them switched over to my (equally half-assed) hosting service.

I notice that most of the cut rate registration services do transfers, which seem to be how one goes about renewing if you change registrars at the same time. This would make sense to do, to get my domains under one roof and also at a place that has decent support and a chance they'll still be around in 5 years, but I'm a real novice at this and worried that there might be complications I don't know about. For example, will transferring the domain from one registrar to another screw up my website?

Also, I don't know if I even have any record of who I registered one of the domains with - will that cause problems in tranferring it?

Oh, I was going to go with Godaddy just because they have good rates, and up front unlike, say, Unom. Any others I should be considering?

will transferring the domain from one registrar to another screw up my website?

No, whenever you chage registrars and transfer the domain, you usually have an option something along the lines of "keep existing nameservers", this allows you to transfer your domain names without any downtime at all.

I don't know if I even have any record of who I registered one of the domains with

I believe you are saying you can't remember who you registered the domain with? If this is the case, you can just go to www.internic.net and do a whois on your domain name, it will give you the company name of which you registered through, I think most whois systems will do this anyway.

As far as registars, there are many. I personally use GoDaddy and love them, their rates are really good, especially since you can now transfer domains for $7.75, and their support has been fairly fast whenever I had an issue.

I have said it before, and will say it again, please don't use RegisterFly, they have caused me so many headaches it ain't funny. Now I am struggling with transfering my domains away from them. They are one hassle after another. But don't just take my word, do a search here on any registar you are considering and you will get lots of information.

lets just hope you remember the domain names :)

When you transfer from one registrar to another, a domain year (renewal) will be added on. This is a registry requirement so it serves as a reasonable way to renew.

Nameservers cannot be changed during a transfer between registrars, so your domain will continue to resolve.

If you don't remember where you have registered the domain, you can find out at http://www.internic.net by using the whois service there. Transferring away from any given registrar may require you to use a management account with them to release the domain if they have anything other than email validation enabled for your domain.

Good luck,

-t

Taking out the web trash? :D