Connecting Your Domain Using Private Nameservers (Glue Records)

Private nameservers — also called vanity or white-label nameservers — let you use your own domain name as your nameserver address instead of a generic provider's, such as ns1.yourdomain.com instead of ns1.hover.com. This article explains how private nameservers work and walks you through creating the glue records that make them possible.

What glue records do

A nameserver's job is to answer DNS lookups, which means it needs its own IP address to be reachable — but a nameserver named ns1.yourdomain.com technically lives on the same domain a lookup would need to resolve to find it. A glue record solves this by linking the nameserver hostname directly to an IP address at the domain registry level, so other nameservers can reach it without first needing to resolve yourdomain.com.

Before you begin

• Have your nameserver hostnames ready. You'll need at least two — for example, ns1.yourdomain.com and ns2.yourdomain.com.
• Have the IP address for each nameserver. Each nameserver hostname needs its own corresponding IP address.

Step 1: Create glue records

1. Sign in to your Hover control panel using your chosen method of 2FA.
2. From the domain's Overview page, locate the Nameservers section and click Edit.
3. Select the option to set up private nameservers/glue records.
4. Enter the desired nameserver hostname (for example, ns1.yourdomain.com) and the IP address it should resolve to.
5. Repeat for a second nameserver (for example, ns2.yourdomain.com) with its own IP address.
6. Save your changes.

Note: A functioning private nameserver setup requires at least two glue records.

Using your private nameservers with other domains

Once you've created glue records for a domain, you can use those private nameservers for other domains too — including domains registered with a different registrar, as long as that registrar allows custom nameservers.

Note: Glue record changes can take 24–48 hours to fully propagate across the internet.

Next steps

• Point another domain to your new private nameservers. See Changing your domain nameservers.
• New to DNS? See How does DNS work? for background on nameservers and DNS terminology.

Questions? Contact Hover Support.