What's my free subdomain, and how do I change it?

Every HavoNode server comes with a free address like vikings.havo.uk, so your players can join by a name instead of a string of numbers. It’s made from the name you gave your server when you ordered it, and you can change it from your server’s page in the Game Panel.

Where to find it

On your server’s page in the Game Panel, it’s in the bar of details under the dials, next to the owner, game, server and slots. The copy button beside it copies it, ready to paste to your players.

Your server’s IP address and port are still in the Connect card too. Both work, so use whichever suits.

Do my players need the port?

It depends on the game, and on whether your server is on the game’s usual port.

• Minecraft: Java Edition. No. Players type just the subdomain, whatever port your server is on: an extra record we add tells their game the port.
• Minecraft: Bedrock Edition (including Bedrock players joining a Java server through Geyser). Type the subdomain in the server address box and your Bedrock port in the port box. Bedrock doesn’t read the record that Java uses.
• Rust. Press F1 and type client.connect followed by what the Subdomain box shows, for example client.connect vikings.havo.uk:28015.
• Valheim. Choose Join Game, then Join IP, and type what the Subdomain box shows. On Valheim’s usual port, 2456, that’s just the name.
• ARK: Survival Evolved and Palworld. Their join boxes only take an IP address, so use the IP address and port from the Connect card. For ARK, Steam’s server browser takes the subdomain (below).
• Any other game. Try what the Subdomain box shows. If the game says it can’t find the server, use the IP address and port instead.

Adding it to Steam’s server browser

For a game that uses Steam’s server browser, players can save your server there by its subdomain:

1. In Steam, open View, then Game Servers, then the Favourites tab, and choose Add a server.
2. Type your subdomain with your server’s query port, not its game port: for example vikings.havo.uk:2457. Your Game Panel has it ready to copy: open Query info in the Connect card, and it’s the Steam browser line. Steam finds servers by asking them for their details, and the query port is where your server answers.
3. Choose Add this address to favourites. Your server shows with its name, map and players.

Steam looks the name up once and saves the IP address it found, so it shows the numbers afterwards. If your server ever moves to a new address, remove it from your favourites and add it again.

Change it

1. Open your server’s page in the Game Panel.
2. Next to your subdomain, choose Change. (A server without one yet says Choose one.)
3. Type the name you’d like and choose Save.

It works within a minute. Your old name is kept for you for 30 days, so you can switch back to it, and you can change it up to three times a day.

If it says you don’t have permission, ask whoever owns the server. Changing the subdomain needs the same permission as changing the server’s name or password.

What makes a good name

• 3 to 32 characters: lowercase letters, numbers and hyphens, starting with a letter.
• One nobody else is using. If it’s taken, try a variation.
• Nothing that pretends to be someone else or something official. A game’s name as part of yours is fine (craftlands), but other companies’ names on their own (steam-support), official-sounding words and anything offensive aren’t. A few names are kept for HavoNode itself, such as www and portal.

We can change a name that breaks these rules. If we do, your server keeps working on its IP address and port, and the new name shows in the Subdomain box.

When you cancel

Your subdomain stops working when the server is cancelled. It’s kept for you for 30 days in case you come back, and after that anyone can take it.

Got your own domain?

You can point your own domain at your server instead, or as well. At the company that runs your domain’s DNS, add an A record for the name you’d like (say play.yourdomain.com), pointing at your server’s IP address. For Minecraft: Java Edition, add an SRV record too, for _minecraft._tcp.play.yourdomain.com, with your server’s port and play.yourdomain.com as the target, so players can leave the port off. If you use Cloudflare, set the A record to DNS only (the grey cloud), because game traffic can’t go through Cloudflare’s proxy.