Private nameservers are where your domain points to our nameservers so that your customers do not see our domain name on your account. If you do not set up private nameservers someone does a nameserver lookup on your domain it will show our nameservers.
Once you set up private nameservers when someone does a nameserver lookup on your domain it will show ns1.yourdomain.com and ns2.yourdomain.com which will mask that you are using our services. Your clients can also use ns1.yourdomain.com and ns2.yourdomain.com instead of the our nameservers.
Depending on what registar you used for your domain name you may be able to set up your private nameservers on your own or you may have to contact your registrar to have them set up for you.
For guides specific to your domain registrar take a look at the following guides below or refer to your domain registrar’s knowledgebase.
Registering Private Nameservers with GoDaddy
If your domain is registered at Godaddy and you want to use private nameservers (ns1.yourdomain.com, ns2.yourdomain.com, ect) you have to register them before they can be set on any of your domains. If you don’t register them first, Godaddy will give you an error when you try to assign them to any domain.
Once your private nameservers and IPs are assigned by Host4Geeks, you must then register both the names, and their IPs at Godaddy.
- Go to the Go Daddy Account Login Page.
- Log in using your account username (which may be the same as your customer number) and password.
Once logged in follow these steps:
- Go to Domains >> My Domains
- Click on your domain you’d like to register nameservers for.
- Click on (add) under ‘Host Summary’ on the bottom left.
- For “Host Name:” you’ll input “ns1” (no quotes) in the box.
- For “Host IP 1:” you’ll input your primary nameserver IP address
- Click “Ok” – Your first nameserver has been created.
- Click on (add) under ‘Host Summary’ on the bottom left again.
- For “Host Name:” you’ll input “ns2” (no quotes) in the box.
- For “Host IP 2: you’ll enter the same IP as your primary address, except one number higher.(For Example: You received the ip: 208.85.241.34 when signing up, this would be your primary IP for ns1. For ns2 you would use: 208.85.241.35)
- Click “OK”
After you’ve registered the private nameservers, you can now set all of your domain names to use the private nameservers that you have registered.
Registering Private Nameservers with Name.com
If you have a dedicated server or VPS from your hosting provider, they may ask you to register custom domain name servers. These servers are ones that are at your domain name, such as ns1.(your domain name). Before you can add those name servers to domain names, you need to register them:
- Log in to your Name.com account and click My Account.
- Click my domains on the left in green.
- Click the domain name you would like to manage.
- Click NS Registration on the left side.
- In the Hostname field, enter a prefix, such as NS1. In the IP Address field, enter the IP address that you need the name server to point to.
- Click the Register New Name Server button.