As you might have noticed in the last couple of weeks, some registrars (including my employer, Tucows) have already made the switch: The COM and NET registry, operated by Verisign, is switching from RRP (Registry Registrar Protocol) to EPP (Extensible Provisioning Protocol). Now what does this mean for our domains?
The COM and NET registry used to use the RRP protocol for domain registrations, transfers and renewals. As per ICANN mandate the gTLDs are supposed to switch to using the EPP in the future. This is the same protocol that is already being used for TLDs such as .ORG, .INFO and .BIZ today. Basically this is only a backend change, but there are some changes you will notice:

1. Transfers

The main change for transfers is that you will be needing authorization codes in order to initiate the transfer at a gaining registrar. Your new registrar will submit the transfer request to the registry, together with the authorization code.The main challenge here, especially for owners of many domains, is that different registrars provide you access to the authorization codes by different means. While the registrars are obligated to provide you (the registrant or admin contact) with that information, the methods for retrieving it differ from registrar to registrar. Some registrars allow you to view and edit the authorization code on a domain by domain basis, some have the same code across all of a registrant’s domains and others require you to request that information from their support staff via a manual request.

The time of the switchover is especially interesting during the time of transition, since not both registrars might have migrated to EPP yet. For example, if you initiate a transfer from a non-EPP registrar (one that still uses the older RRP protocol), you will not need to provide an authorization code. The same is valid if your new registrar has not changed over to EPP yet. But if the new and old registrar have both switched over to the new protocol, you will require and authorization code.

The original deadline for the completion of the migration was October 1st, 2006, but it has now been changed to a target date. However, as of the end of the month of October, registrars will no longer be able to connect to the registry using the RRP protocol. Thus the final deadline is the end of October 2006.

2. Whois Status

The whois status output will change as follows:

RRP status (old)	EPP mapping (new)
ACTIVE	OK
Registrar-LOCK	Client Update prohibited Client Transfer prohibited Client Delete prohibited
Registry-HOLD	Server HOLD Server Transfer prohibited Server Delete prohibited Server Update prohibited
Registry LOCK	Server Transfer prohibited Server Delete prohibited Server Update prohibited
PendingDelete	Pending Delete
PendingTransfer	Pending Transfer
RedemptionPeriod	Redemption Period
PendingRestore	Pending Restore

Source: Verisign

You might know that other registries, such as ORG also hold all the contact information of the registrant (domain owner) at the registry level in a so-called thick registry. This will not be the case for the COM/NET registry. The contact information will remain with the registrar and the registry whois will continue to include a pointer to the whois of the sponsoring registrar, since the migration (including the change to a unified format) of this information to the registry level would be a huge undertaking, considering the amount of names registered.