What is an IPS tag?
An Internet Provider Security (IPS) tag is a way that the organisation who governs .uk domains is able to give control of a domain name to a certain company. You will need to change your IPS tag in order to transfer your domain name to Rocketspark. Nominet is the internet registry that governs .uk domains and requires all .uk domains to have an IPS tag associated with their domain. The tag is a label all in capital letters such as TUCOWS-CA, which is the one needed for Rocketspark.
Rocketspark uses a domain provider called OpenSRS/TuCows which is why this label may look foreign.
Why do you need to change it?
In order to transfer a .uk domain to Rocketspark the IPS tag needs to be set to TUCOWS-CA. This is because by transferring your domain to Rocketspark you are changing the company which is hosting the domain name. By changing the IPS tag to Rocketsparks the transfer is able to go ahead and the domain can be moved away from its current provider. Follow our guide here to find your current domain company.
How to change your IPS tag for transfer to Rocketspark?
The instructions below are a generic process for changing your IPS tag and may not match exactly to your domain providers website. Your provider might be listed on our table below with a link to their specific guide, please follow these guides if appropriate. Please set the tag to TUCOWS-CA
Some domain companies have guides on how to do this:
There are two main ways domain companies allow you to change your IPS tag:
Firstly, some domain providers will not allow you as a user to manually change our IPS tag, you will need to submit a support ticket from your domain area detailing that you would like your IPS tag to be changed to TUCOWS-CA.
Other domain providers have an option in the domain management area:
- Log into your domain provider's account where your domain is currently being hosted.
- There will be an area where you can manage any domains currently registered under the account, proceed here.
- Select the domain you are wanting to transfer to Rocketspark.
- In this area there may be an option to change the IPS tag on your domain, click here.
- Change the IPS tag to TUCOWS-CA and save the changes. NOTE: Once you have changed your IPS tag your DNS settings and nameservers will be removed on your old domain provider's side within 24-48 hours, and your website may become unavailable.
- We also recommend you view our other guide on unlocking your domain and disabling WHOIS privacy as these are required to transfer your domain.
Now you are able to transfer your domain to Rocketspark. Please login to your website's Dashboard and navigate to the Domain Names section to continue or start your domain transfer.