To use Hover's URL forwarding services there are two requirements:

1. You will need Hover services for the domain name.
2. Your domain name, or any sub domains being used with URL forwarding, need to be pointed at our forwarding server's IP address: 64.99.80.30

Domain names purchased in Hover are automatically pointed at the Hover name servers, and our name servers will point domain names at 64.99.80.30 by default. However, if you have a domain name that is not pointed at Hover's name servers, or if you have edited the default DNS records in our system to point your domain at other services, then you might need to roll up your sleeves and delve into the scary world of editing your DNS records to use our URL forwarding. Our goal here is to remove any fear of causing downtime for your hosted website.

Before we get ahead of ourselves, we need to start with the basics. While you are managing your domain, go to the Manage Domain tab then click on Name Servers to see whether your domain name is pointed at Hover's name servers or third party name servers (such as a web host provider). The Hover name servers are ns1.hover.com and ns2.hover.com

If you are not using Hover's name servers, you can still use our URL forwarding services but instead of editing/adding DNS records in the Manage DNS section in Hover, you'll need to perform those tasks in your web host provider's DNS control panel.

In the example above, you can see that awesomelawncare.tv and *.awesomelawncare.tv are pointed at Hover's IP address, 64.99.80.30. These are the default settings. Nothing exciting here! If your domain is using these settings then you don't need to do anything out of the ordinary or make any changes to your DNS records to use Hover's URL forwarding services.

Next, let's take a look at a domain that isn't as straightforward.

In this example, 2things.info and the wildcard *.2things.info are both pointed at the IP address of a web host provider, 66.40.52.60. These records ensure that when someone types 2things.info, www.2things.info, or any other sub domain that hasn't been defined, that they are taken to the hosted website.

There are also two sub domains, news and weather. News.2things,info and weather.2things,info are pointed at Hover's IP address, 64.99.80.30. Since these sub domains are pointed at Hover, we can use news.2things.info and weather.2things.info with Hover URL forwarding.

Under the Manage Forwards tab, there are two forwards (Hovers) created for weather and news. Both are configured as subdomains.

In the screenshots above, we can see that 2things.info goes to a hosted blog website, news.2things.info is redirected to a news website, and weather.2things.info is redirected to a weather website.

To do this with your own registered domain, remember the following steps:

1. Check whether your domain is pointed at Hover's name servers or your web host's name servers.
2. If you are using Hover's name servers, go into Manage DNS and create A records for the sub domains that you want to use with our URL forwarding. The sub domains need to be pointed at 64.99.80.30. If you are using your web host's name servers, then the A records need to be created in their DNS control panel.
3. Create your sub domain forwards in Hover.

If you need more basic instructions on how to edit DNS records or create URL forwards in Hover, these additional tutorials may be helpful:

http://about.hover.com/urlforwarding
http://about.hover.com/hovers
http://about.hover.com/editzonefile
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