Use the Advanced Settings panel to make changes to your nameservers, glue records and DNSSEC record.

If you registered your domain through Squarespace, you can review or change your nameservers and add up to 13 glue records. You can manage your third-party domain name system security extension (DNSSEC) record in the domain’s advanced settings.

Nameservers

Nameservers host information needed to point domains to specific locations online. For example, Squarespace’s default nameservers connect a domain by pointing to that domain’s DNS settings.

Review or change your nameservers in the domain's Advanced settings panel. You can add a minimum of two and a maximum of 13 custom nameservers.

We don't recommend editing or using custom nameservers if your domain is correctly connected to your Squarespace site. Changing your domain's nameservers will break its link to your site and disconnect any linked Google Workspace account. We only recommend using custom nameservers when you want to add DNSSEC to your domain.

DNSSEC

DNSSEC is an advanced form of domain security. It verifies the DNS settings for visitors using public and private keys, to ensure that data from the domain wasn’t altered in transit to the visitor.

DNSSEC protection is automatically included if your domain meets the following requirements:

• The domain uses Squarespace Domains LLC as the registrar.
• The domain's TLD is .com or .net.

If your domain doesn’t meet the above requirements, you can purchase DNSSEC from a third-party provider and add it to your domain's Advanced Settings.

Adding third-party DNSSEC protection to a domain

If you add third-party DNSSEC protection to your domain, keep in mind:

• You can only add one DNSSEC record to your domain.
• Contact your third-party DNSSEC provider for the values needed to add a DNSSEC record.

To add third-party DNSSEC protection to your domain:

1. Open your domains dashboard.
2. Click the domain you're editing.
3. Click DNS, then click DNSSEC.
4. If your domain is registered to Squarespace Domains, LLC and is using custom nameservers, these fields show in the DNSSEC window:
   • Key tag
   • Algorithm
   • Digest type
   • Max sig life (optional)
   • Digest
5. Enter information from your third-party DNSSEC provider in the fields, then click Send to registry. When the information is successfully submitted, a “DNSSEC signed” message will display in the panel.

Disable DNSSEC settings

DNSSEC is automatically enabled for Squarespace Domains LLC domains with .com or .net TLDs. You don't need to do anything to set it up. If you have more complex security needs, you may need to disable DNSSEC.

To disable DNSSEC:

1. Open your domains dashboard.
2. Click the domain you're editing.
3. Click DNS, then click DNSSEC.
4. Switch the toggle off next to DNS Security Extensions.
5. A confirmation window will appear. Click Confirm. This removes the DNSSEC information from the domain and registry. 

Nameserver Registration (aka glue records)

When you register or add a domain to your Squarespace site, your domain is automatically stored and added to our servers via nameservers. Nameservers show web browsers where on the internet your domain is located. This process enables your visitors to load your site in seconds from their browsers, as other people all over the world are also using the internet.

Although no platform can guarantee 100% uptime, our servers have enough power to host your domain, while simultaneously supporting significant amounts of traffic to multiple sites and domains across the internet daily. 

However, if your business already has servers in place, and you want to host your domain on your servers instead, you can use Nameserver Registration, or glue records, to register your nameserver’s IP address with your TLD’s registry. For safety and regulatory reasons, registries keep track of how many domains are using their TLDs. For example, CIRA, the registry that manages .ca domains, tracks how many domains use a .ca TLD and all of the IP addresses for each .ca TLD in their registry.

If your server is hosted on a different platform, like Cloudflare, you can add glue records to your domain settings in Squarespace to ensure your registry has the most up-to-date information regarding where you’re hosting your domain.

Adding glue records to your domain settings is an advanced step. You can only add glue records to your domain if:

• You already have a server.
• You want your domain to be hosted on a server that’s not managed by your domain provider.

Creating and managing a custom server falls outside of Squarespace’s scope of support. We highly recommend that you have server administration knowledge before adding glue records to your domain.

Adding glue records

To add glue records:

1. Contact your server provider to request your server’s hostname and IP address.
2. Open your domains dashboard.
3. Click the domain you're editing.
4. Click DNS, then click Domain Nameservers.
5. Click Nameserver Registration, then click Add Host Record.
6. In the Create a host record pop-up window, enter the hostname in the Hostname field.
7. In the IP address field, enter the IP address, and click Add IP address.
8. Click Save.

To remove glue records:

1. Open your domains dashboard.
2. Click the domain you're editing.
3. Click DNS, then click Domain Nameservers.
4. Click Nameserver Registration, then click the trash can icon next to the host record.
5. In the pop-up window, click Delete.

Open the domain's advanced settings

Make changes to your nameservers or add DNSSEC from your domains dashboard.

1. Open your domains dashboard.
2. Click the domain name. If you have multiple Squarespace domains, you'll manage them separately.
3. Click DNS, then click Nameserver settings to review or change your domain’s nameservers. The options in the tab are:
   • Use Squarespace nameservers - Keep or add Squarespace’s default nameservers. Any records added to the domain’s DNS settings panel will apply to the domain.
   • Use custom nameservers - Remove Squarespace’s nameservers to enter new ones. If you add custom nameservers to your domain, the records in the domain’s DNS settings panel won’t apply to the domain.
4. To change your nameservers, click Use custom nameservers, then enter the information for at least two nameservers. Click Save in the top-right corner.