Migrating a Domain from Onamae.com to Google Domains

When moving domain management, individuals should watch out for WHOIS disclosure

Posted on Tue, May 23, 2023
Tags domain, network, google
📝 This article is a translation of the original Japanese post. View original

Background

  • I wanted to try doing a domain transfer, and since I use Google Cloud I wanted to consolidate the billing.

Outcome

  1. The domain transfer works, but you have to temporarily publish your WHOIS information
    • This isn’t specific to Onamae.com — at transfer time the receiving registrar needs to confirm ownership based on the WHOIS information (surely there’s a better way)
  2. Since address and phone number are not verified by an actual phone call or postal delivery, the transfer went through even when I temporarily switched everything except the email address to placeholder information (at your own risk!)
  3. The transfer took 1 hour in total. During that time, personal (albeit placeholder) information was published in WHOIS
    • There’s a practice on the internet of letting the domain lapse and re-registering it at the destination, but waiting the roughly 30 days for it to be released is rough too
  4. After the domain transfer, if you don’t set up DNS as needed, the site becomes unreachable

Work Log

The steps for a domain transfer are available on the internet, so I’ll skip writing them out.

The key point is that until the transfer to Google Domains completes, you have to temporarily disable WHOIS proxy registration.

The Situation During the Domain Transfer

It takes a few hours for the domain transfer to complete. The moment I changed whois, the values registered with ICANN did change as expected (the below is sanitized).

  1$ whois amasuda.xyz
  2% IANA WHOIS server
  3% for more information on IANA, visit http://www.iana.org
  4% This query returned 1 object
  5
  6refer:        whois.nic.xyz
  7domain:       XYZ
  8organisation: XYZ.COM LLC
  9address:      2121 E Tropicana Ave, Suite 2
 10address:      Las Vegas NV 89119
 11address:      United States of America (the)
 12contact:      administrative
 13name:         General Counsel
 14organisation: XYZ.COM LLC
 15address:      2121 E Tropicana Ave, Suite 2
 16address:      Las Vegas NV 89119
 17address:      United States of America (the)
 18phone:        +1.7027632191
 19e-mail:       hello@xyz.com
 20contact:      technical
 21name:         CTO
 22organisation: CentralNic
 23address:      Saddlers House, 4th Floor
 24address:      44 Gutter Lane
 25address:      London EC2V 6BR
 26address:      United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the)
 27phone:        +44 20 33 88 0600
 28fax-no:       +44 20 33 88 0601
 29e-mail:       tld.ops@centralnic.com
 30nserver:      X.NIC.XYZ 194.169.218.42 2001:67c:13cc:0:0:0:1:42
 31nserver:      Y.NIC.XYZ 185.24.64.42 2a04:2b00:13cc:0:0:0:1:42
 32nserver:      Z.NIC.XYZ 212.18.248.42 2a04:2b00:13ee:0:0:0:0:42
 33ds-rdata:     3599 8 1 3fa3b264f45db5f38bedeaf1a88b76aa318c2c7f
 34ds-rdata:     3599 8 2 b9733869bc84c86bb59d102ba5da6b27b2088552332a39dcd54bc4e8d66b0499
 35whois:        whois.nic.xyz
 36status:       ACTIVE
 37remarks:      Registration information: https://nic.xyz
 38created:      2014-02-06
 39changed:      2022-08-16
 40source:       IANA
 41
 42# whois.nic.xyz
 43
 44Domain Name: AMASUDA.XYZ
 45Registry Domain ID: D32657943-CNIC
 46Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.discount-domain.com
 47Registrar URL: http://www.onamae.com
 48Updated Date: 2023-05-20T15:56:54.0Z
 49Creation Date: 2016-06-20T15:08:19.0Z
 50Registry Expiry Date: 2023-06-20T23:59:59.0Z
 51Registrar: GMO Internet Group, Inc. d/b/a Onamae.com
 52Registrar IANA ID: 49
 53Domain Status: ok https://icann.org/epp#ok
 54Registrant Organization: Akira Masuda
 55Registrant State/Province: Tokyo
 56Registrant Country: JP
 57Registrant Email: Please query the RDDS service of the Registrar of Record identified in this output for information on how to contact the Registrant, Admin, or Tech contact of the queried domain name.
 58Admin Email: Please query the RDDS service of the Registrar of Record identified in this output for information on how to contact the Registrant, Admin, or Tech contact of the queried domain name.
 59Tech Email: Please query the RDDS service of the Registrar of Record identified in this output for information on how to contact the Registrant, Admin, or Tech contact of the queried domain name.
 60Name Server: DNS1.P03.NSONE.NET
 61Name Server: DNS2.P03.NSONE.NET
 62Name Server: DNS3.P03.NSONE.NET
 63Name Server: DNS4.P03.NSONE.NET
 64DNSSEC: unsigned
 65Billing Email: Please query the RDDS service of the Registrar of Record identified in this output for information on how to contact the Registrant, Admin, or Tech contact of the queried domain name.
 66Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@gmo.jp
 67Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +81.337709199
 68URL of the ICANN Whois Inaccuracy Complaint Form: https://www.icann.org/wicf/
 69>>> Last update of WHOIS database: 2023-05-20T16:25:08.0Z <<<
 70
 71# whois.discount-domain.com
 72
 73Domain Name: amasuda.xyz
 74Registry Domain ID: D32657943-CNIC
 75Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.discount-domain.com
 76Registrar URL: http://www.onamae.com
 77Updated Date: 2023-05-21T01:24:03Z
 78Creation Date: 2016-06-20T15:08:20Z
 79Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2023-06-20T23:59:59Z
 80Registrar: GMO INTERNET, INC.
 81Registrar IANA ID: 49
 82Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@gmo.jp
 83Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +81.337709199
 84Domain Status: ok https://icann.org/epp#ok
 85Registry Registrant ID: 267A95B5B7A892
 86Registrant Name: Akira Masuda
 87Registrant Organization: Akira Masuda
 88Registrant Street: 1-1
 89Registrant City: Chiyoda ku                    <---- this area is what gets published
 90Registrant State/Province: Tokyo
 91Registrant Postal Code: 100-0001
 92Registrant Country: JP
 93Registrant Phone: +81.9011111111
 94Registrant Phone Ext:
 95Registrant Fax:
 96Registrant Fax Ext:
 97Registrant Email: hogehoge@gmail.com
 98Registry Admin ID: 29F63C1ED94797
 99Admin Name: Akira Masuda
100Admin Organization: Masuda Akira
101Admin Street: 1-1
102Admin City: Chiyoda ku
103Admin State/Province: Tokyo
104Admin Postal Code: 100-0001
105Admin Country: JP
106Admin Phone: +81.9011111111
107Admin Phone Ext:
108Admin Fax:
109Admin Fax Ext:
110Admin Email: hogehoge@gmail.com
111Registry Tech ID: 29F63C45B31FA3
112Tech Name: Taro Warita
113Tech Organization: GMO Internet Inc.
114Tech Street: 26-1 Sakuragaoka-cho
115Tech Street: Cerulean Tower 11F
116Tech City: Shibuya-ku
117Tech State/Province: Tokyo
118Tech Postal Code: 150-8512
119Tech Country: JP
120Tech Phone: +81.354562555
121Tech Phone Ext:
122Tech Fax: +81.354562556
123Tech Fax Ext:
124Tech Email: admin@onamae.com
125Name Server: dns1.p03.nsone.net
126Name Server: dns2.p03.nsone.net
127Name Server: dns3.p03.nsone.net
128Name Server: dns4.p03.nsone.net
129DNSSEC: unsigned
130URL of the ICANN WHOIS Data Problem Reporting System: http://wdprs.internic.net/
131>>> Last update of WHOIS database: 2023-05-21T01:24:03Z <<<

It says up to 5/27 at the longest, so it really is better not to put personal information in WHOIS.

30 Minutes After Starting the Transfer, the Transfer Approval Notice

An email titled “[Important] Confirmation regarding your transfer request” arrived from Onamae.com.

I expected that once approved it would switch to Google Domains and WHOIS would switch too, but even after pressing approve the WHOIS information didn’t change for a while.

Another 30 Minutes Later, Email Address Verification

An email arrived asking me to confirm that the email address was correct. It’s unclear where this email address information is being read from, but even if you’re going to publish WHOIS, you obviously need to have a correct email address configured.

Overall, the transfer progressed on roughly the following timeline.

Checking the WHOIS information. I have the correct address and so on configured on the Google side, but since privacy protection is enabled, you can confirm that Google is registering on my behalf.

  1$ whois amasuda.xyz
  2% IANA WHOIS server
  3% for more information on IANA, visit http://www.iana.org
  4% This query returned 1 object
  5
  6refer:        whois.nic.xyz
  7
  8domain:       XYZ
  9
 10organisation: XYZ.COM LLC
 11address:      2121 E Tropicana Ave, Suite 2
 12address:      Las Vegas NV 89119
 13address:      United States of America (the)
 14
 15contact:      administrative
 16name:         General Counsel
 17organisation: XYZ.COM LLC
 18address:      2121 E Tropicana Ave, Suite 2
 19address:      Las Vegas NV 89119
 20address:      United States of America (the)
 21phone:        +1.7027632191
 22e-mail:       hello@xyz.com
 23
 24contact:      technical
 25name:         CTO
 26organisation: CentralNic
 27address:      Saddlers House, 4th Floor
 28address:      44 Gutter Lane
 29address:      London EC2V 6BR
 30address:      United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the)
 31phone:        +44 20 33 88 0600
 32fax-no:       +44 20 33 88 0601
 33e-mail:       tld.ops@centralnic.com
 34
 35nserver:      GENERATIONXYZ.NIC.XYZ 212.18.249.42 2a04:2b00:13ff:0:0:0:0:42
 36nserver:      X.NIC.XYZ 194.169.218.42 2001:67c:13cc:0:0:0:1:42
 37nserver:      Y.NIC.XYZ 185.24.64.42 2a04:2b00:13cc:0:0:0:1:42
 38nserver:      Z.NIC.XYZ 212.18.248.42 2a04:2b00:13ee:0:0:0:0:42
 39ds-rdata:     3599 8 1 3fa3b264f45db5f38bedeaf1a88b76aa318c2c7f
 40ds-rdata:     3599 8 2 b9733869bc84c86bb59d102ba5da6b27b2088552332a39dcd54bc4e8d66b0499
 41
 42whois:        whois.nic.xyz
 43
 44status:       ACTIVE
 45remarks:      Registration information: https://nic.xyz
 46
 47created:      2014-02-06
 48changed:      2022-08-16
 49source:       IANA
 50
 51# whois.nic.xyz
 52
 53Domain Name: AMASUDA.XYZ
 54Registry Domain ID: D32657943-CNIC
 55Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.google.com
 56Registrar URL: https://domains.google.com
 57Updated Date: 2023-05-20T17:12:49.0Z
 58Creation Date: 2016-06-20T15:08:19.0Z
 59Registry Expiry Date: 2024-06-20T23:59:59.0Z
 60Registrar: Google Inc
 61Registrar IANA ID: 895
 62Domain Status: serverTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#serverTransferProhibited
 63Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
 64Domain Status: transferPeriod https://icann.org/epp#transferPeriod
 65Registrant Organization: Contact Privacy Inc. Customer 7151571251
 66Registrant State/Province: ON
 67Registrant Country: CA
 68Registrant Email: Please query the RDDS service of the Registrar of Record identified in this output for information on how to contact the Registrant, Admin, or Tech contact of the queried domain name.
 69Admin Email: Please query the RDDS service of the Registrar of Record identified in this output for information on how to contact the Registrant, Admin, or Tech contact of the queried domain name.
 70Tech Email: Please query the RDDS service of the Registrar of Record identified in this output for information on how to contact the Registrant, Admin, or Tech contact of the queried domain name.
 71Name Server: NS-CLOUD-D1.GOOGLEDOMAINS.COM
 72Name Server: NS-CLOUD-D2.GOOGLEDOMAINS.COM
 73Name Server: NS-CLOUD-D3.GOOGLEDOMAINS.COM
 74Name Server: NS-CLOUD-D4.GOOGLEDOMAINS.COM
 75DNSSEC: unsigned
 76Billing Email: Please query the RDDS service of the Registrar of Record identified in this output for information on how to contact the Registrant, Admin, or Tech contact of the queried domain name.
 77Registrar Abuse Contact Email: registrar-abuse@google.com
 78Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.2065311374
 79URL of the ICANN Whois Inaccuracy Complaint Form: https://www.icann.org/wicf/
 80>>> Last update of WHOIS database: 2023-05-20T17:20:44.0Z <<<
 81
 82# whois.google.com
 83
 84Domain Name: amasuda.xyz
 85Registry Domain ID: D32657943-CNIC
 86Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.google.com
 87Registrar URL: https://domains.google.com
 88Updated Date: 2023-05-20T17:12:49Z
 89Creation Date: 2016-06-20T15:08:19Z
 90Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2024-06-20T23:59:59Z
 91Registrar: Google LLC
 92Registrar IANA ID: 895
 93Registrar Abuse Contact Email: registrar-abuse@google.com
 94Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.8772376466
 95Domain Status: serverTransferProhibited https://www.icann.org/epp#serverTransferProhibited
 96Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited https://www.icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
 97Domain Status: transferPeriod https://www.icann.org/epp#transferPeriod
 98Registry Registrant ID: go721301258106
 99Registrant Name: Contact Privacy Inc. Customer 7151571251
100Registrant Organization: Contact Privacy Inc. Customer 7151571251
101Registrant Street: 96 Mowat Ave
102Registrant City: Toronto
103Registrant State/Province: ON
104Registrant Postal Code: M4K 3K1
105Registrant Country: CA
106Registrant Phone: +1.4165385487
107Registrant Phone Ext:
108Registrant Fax:
109Registrant Fax Ext:
110Registrant Email: https://domains.google.com/contactregistrant?domain=amasuda.xyz
111Registry Admin ID: go721301258106
112Admin Name: Contact Privacy Inc. Customer 7151571251
113Admin Organization: Contact Privacy Inc. Customer 7151571251
114Admin Street: 96 Mowat Ave
115Admin City: Toronto
116Admin State/Province: ON
117Admin Postal Code: M4K 3K1
118Admin Country: CA
119Admin Phone: +1.4165385487
120Admin Phone Ext:
121Admin Fax:
122Admin Fax Ext:
123Admin Email: https://domains.google.com/contactregistrant?domain=amasuda.xyz
124Registry Tech ID: go721301258106
125Tech Name: Contact Privacy Inc. Customer 7151571251
126Tech Organization: Contact Privacy Inc. Customer 7151571251
127Tech Street: 96 Mowat Ave
128Tech City: Toronto
129Tech State/Province: ON
130Tech Postal Code: M4K 3K1
131Tech Country: CA
132Tech Phone: +1.4165385487
133Tech Phone Ext:
134Tech Fax:
135Tech Fax Ext:
136Tech Email: https://domains.google.com/contactregistrant?domain=amasuda.xyz
137Name Server: NS-CLOUD-D1.GOOGLEDOMAINS.COM
138Name Server: NS-CLOUD-D2.GOOGLEDOMAINS.COM
139Name Server: NS-CLOUD-D3.GOOGLEDOMAINS.COM
140Name Server: NS-CLOUD-D4.GOOGLEDOMAINS.COM
141DNSSEC: unsigned
142URL of the ICANN WHOIS Data Problem Reporting System: http://wdprs.internic.net/
143>>> Last update of WHOIS database: 2023-05-20T17:20:00.298499Z <<<

Impressions

Proving domain ownership to ICANN is fine, but how much need is there to make that public information… At the very least I’d like the information to be masked.

I was also curious why a procedure that completes entirely on the internet takes this much time.

Postscript

I assumed there’d be no problems for a while after changing where the domain is managed, but a few days later I noticed the site had become unreachable. The reason was that the DNS settings I had configured at Onamae.com hadn’t carried over to Google Domains, so name resolution for the custom domain was failing.

The blind spot was that it didn’t surface immediately, because the browser cache was still around.

By applying the necessary DNS settings on the Google Domains side too, I’m now able to deliver articles like this one again.

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