Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) is a method of registering and maintaining domain names.  

How EPP works

EPP is a client-server protocol, where all communications use XML as defined by a series of schemas.

The normal conversation between a client and the server will be:

• Client connects to server over SSL.
• Server identifies itself and the commands and extensions that it supports.
• Client logs in by supplying login name and password.
• Client polls the server to see if there are any notifications waiting to be collected and then collects them (or it could do this later).
• Client issues commands to server, which then replies immediately with response status.
• Client then idles until it has more commands to send, polling periodically for any notifications.
  
  

Benefits of using EPP

The main benefits of using EPP are:

• Responses to commands are generally instant. You can issue a command to register a domain, get a response and then confirm with your customer that this has happened all in real time.
• Your investment in EPP client programming should be transferable when integrating with the EPP service of other registries.
• You can choose when to collect notifications that we send you and can be sure that you have received them.
  
  

What you need to use EPP

You will either need to write your own EPP client or buy one off the shelf. EPP is not intended for an individual to type out an EPP command in the same way that you can with the Automaton. Your software will then need to be able to connect directly to the EPP server using SSL.

To connect to our EPP server you need to register for this service. We also provide an EPP testbed to allow you to test your EPP implementation.

Standard EPP is defined in RFC 5730, RFC 5731, RFC 5732 and RFC 5733.

We recommend that new clients are developed to our standard EPP implementation, documented in these pages. Documentation on the Nominet EPP extensions is also available.