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Nameservers

Child nameservers (your own ns1.your-domain.com)

What child nameservers are, when you need them, and how to register them from your control panel.

2 min read Updated

A child nameserver — also called a glue record or private nameserver — is a nameserver named under your own domain, such as ns1.your-domain.com. Resellers use them so their customers see the reseller's brand instead of the hosting company's.

For ns1.your-domain.com to work, the registry needs to know its IP address. Without that, a resolver told to ask ns1.your-domain.com has no way to find it: to look it up it would have to ask ns1.your-domain.com. Registering a child nameserver is what breaks that circle.

What you need

  • The hostname you want, for example ns1.your-domain.com and ns2.your-domain.com.
  • The IP address of the server that will answer DNS for each of them. Your hosting company gives you these.
  • A DNS server at that IP that is set up to answer for your zones.

Register them

  1. Open Your domains and choose the domain.
  2. Under Elsewhere and not yet, click Manage child name servers.
  3. Type the host name and its IP address, then click Register.

Repeat for each nameserver. A host that answers on more than one address takes them all at once — separate them with spaces or commas.

Change or remove one

Each registered host has its own row.

  • Rename it — edit the host name and click Rename.
  • Change an address — edit it and click Save.
  • Remove an address — click Remove beside it.

Removing a host's last address is what removes the host. There is no separate delete: a child nameserver with no addresses does not exist.

Then point a domain at them

Registering a nameserver does not point anything at it. It tells the registry the host exists and where it answers — nothing more.

To use it, change the nameservers on this domain or on any other with Change your domain's nameservers.

Note

On .EU and .SX, every child nameserver you create is also added as a nameserver of that domain, and counts toward its maximum. See Nameserver rules by extension.

Important

Renaming a child nameserver, or taking away its last address, changes where every domain delegated to it resolves — including domains belonging to your own customers. Check what is pointing at it before you change it.

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