Ownership, Public Records, Registrar
Strictly speaking you do not own a domain name, you only have a licence to use it for a specific period of time.
A name is registered and renewed through an authorised company, called registrar, (Netcells Ltd. or another), charged with updating the name owner data, nameservers and other details.
Public records are held by large organizations such as Network Solutions, Tucows, Nominet etc. and are, in principle, publicly available.
Netcells is an authorised reseller of domain names with TUCOWS in Canada - one of the world's top providers of domain name services.
Due to a great number of Internet scams, aimed at tricking people into making bogus payments for a name renewal, the contact details of the name owner are best kept confidential.
For that reason you will often not see your details when checking your name's public records.

Why move name
Moving your name to Netcells will save you time, specially if you own several names. Names can be set to renew automatically or to expire. You can access the name's settings and manage them all together. Top level names (.com, .net, .org) are locked to prevent stealing.
A name can be idle, you can use it just for email or you can point it to any web site or server (including our own, of course).

Moving Top Level Domain Names to Netcells - (.com, .net, .org, .info)
The transfer procedures vary according to name types and registrar (the company holding the name). If you want to transfer a name, it is best to get it underway as soon as possible - the transfer can take from a few minutes to days and even weeks - it can be frustrating and even costly.
The Registrant (the person the Name it registered to) AND/OR the Administrative Contact must approve the transfer of the Name. Although you may be the owner of the name, this is not of much use if the transfer is blocked by the company holding the name (registrar).
In practice, two conditions have to be met: [1] the ADMIN CONTACT email has to be active and cooperative (see below) and [2] the name has to be UNLOCKED.
In most cases there is no charge for transferring the Name. However, in some cases the company holding the name is uncooperative, inefficient or worse. If that is the case, if you want us to handle the transfer, we will charge for our time (we will discuss this with you first, of course).
Once the Name is moved you can have full access to its setting and it can be set to renew automatically [see >Names].

Moving UK Domain Names to Netcells - (co.uk, org.uk)
Whoever you used to register the name, all public records for UK names are held by Nominet - to check who is the owner of a name type it into the WhoIs box in bottom right corner of the >Nominet site.
Private individuals have an option of withholding their personal information from public viewing.
Those names are registered for 2 year periods, Nominet will send you a letter asking your to confirm the owner details - those letters are legitimate and they should be acted on.
If your name has expired Nominet will send you a renewal bill for about £80 if you still want to keep the name - in such a case renew the name with your registrar as it is usually much cheaper.
Bear in mind that expired name cannot be moved until renewed.
A UK name can be moved by the owner even when the registrar is uncooperative by dealing directly with Nominet.
Changing the owner of a UK name is a fairly complicated process which is controlled by Nominet.
To move a UK name to Netcells you need to change the name tag to TUCOWS-CA, and let us know this is done, we will then initiate the transfer process.

Change the Admin Contact of a Name
With most Names the transfer cannot be completed until approved by the Administrative Contact - this is either you or (more often) someone in the company currently holding the Name. If that company is uncooperative, the Name may become 'stuck'. To avoid this, you may want to change the Admin Contact on your Name to us (admin@netcells.net) or to yourself. Some registering companies let you do that online with others you need to follow a lengthy procedure with faxes and letters. Needless to say, if you become the Admin Contact, do not forget to confirm the transfer when contacted, otherwise you would be holding up the transfer yourself.

Move a Name away from us
It must be stressed that moving your name does not result in any visible changes to your site or email. It simply changes the agent holding the name data. The agent holding the data (registrar) can change the name's owner, admin contact and the nameservers. Changing nameservers will point your name to a different server (Internet address) and your email settings will have to be updated.
If you insist on hosting your site elsewhere there are two ways to do it:

During the Move, Email sent to the Name may be held up until it the address records update across the world. Once a Name is transferred to Netcells, Email will either be AUTOMATICALLY FORWARDED to your existing address (if that is not your domain name ie. my@myName.com) or it will STAY ON THE SERVER until you either deal with it online or you download it with your email program. For instructions on how to configure your Email go to: >Names and type your domain Name in the box.

Use our >Support page to tell us you want to move a Name.