Escape from yorhost

The escape from Yorhost requires time, forward planning and possibly the help of onlinenic, the company that Yorhost uses to register its (your) domain names ( in the case of non uk domains)
Contrary to many reviews, I have had a reasonable service from web-mania and Yorhost. The problem with them is that communication is difficult as the phone line has never ever been answered and the email delay is too long for me. So I decided to move to another hosting company, with reluctance.
That was the start of the problems. Basically Yorhost hijacked my domains and I needed onlinenic to intervene, the whole process taking several months.
So, in the light of experience, this is how I would recommend it be done. In the order below

First be sneaky. Make sure that the admin email addresses of Your domain is one that you can access separately from yorhost. You need to receive an email to progress the transfer so having web mania or yorhost as the admin email is bad, because you will not get that crucial email yourself. You do this through the admin section of the yorhost website , logging in using the bit at the top of yorhost front page.

Next, wait a few days and check that the admin address is listed in Whois or equivalent is your one. Now is not the time to have yorhost retaining you privacy. But you could choose a gmail etc address created for this purpose.

Once done, go onto your yorhost login and change the name server to that of your new provider. Also make sure that the domain is unlocked. Try locking and unlocking the domain once or twice if the site prevents a change in name server.

Now, when you start the transfer process with your new provider, you get the emails and your domain can be controlled through your new provider website interface, cpanel or whatever.

Yorhost will possibly stop the move at this point by not giving you the transfer EPP code that you need, and ignoring your emails. If this occurs, creat an account with onlinenic and tell them your problem. Include emails or invoices that you have from yorhost to demonstrate your validity. Enter the same request through yorhost customer support portal so everything is logged.

Eventually onlinenic will give yorhost an ultimatum. To which they will probably respond providing you with a transfer code and unlocking your domain. If they do not you will need to prove ownership of the domain to onlinenic, they will tell you what to do in such an instance.

The process above is not necessary with uk domains under the control of nominet. They are aware of the problems with Nathan Barnes, sole trader running yorhost. They will make transfer much easier, or at least they did with me. And you can phone them easily.

Well that's my distillation of a whole lot of worry, frustration and time spent doing what yorhost promises on its website; free and easy transfer to another provider.

Good luck. Getting your own email, not webmania or yorhost as the domain registered email is most crucial, i suspect.

This account is my own personal experience, maybe I am uniquely unlucky and other than the communication problem and this transfer I had been happy with web mania and yorhost with several domains over perhaps 8 or10 years. Therefore it is a shame it ended for me in this way.