diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 7fc77dd4..85cf8838 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -11,6 +11,6 @@ arrow-array = "42.0"
 arrow-data = "42.0"
 arrow-schema = "42.0"
 arrow-ipc = "42.0"
-half = { "version" = "2.2.1", default-features = false }
+half = { "version" = "=2.2.1", default-features = false }
 object_store = "0.6.1"
 
diff --git a/node/src/index.ts b/node/src/index.ts
index 887aaa8c..e475e21a 100644
--- a/node/src/index.ts
+++ b/node/src/index.ts
@@ -44,6 +44,9 @@ export interface ConnectionOptions {
   apiKey?: string
   // Region to connect
   region?: string
+
+  // override the host for the remote connections
+  hostOverride?: string
 }
 
 /**
diff --git a/node/src/remote/client.ts b/node/src/remote/client.ts
index 64b22a8d..289f378b 100644
--- a/node/src/remote/client.ts
+++ b/node/src/remote/client.ts
@@ -19,7 +19,11 @@ import { tableFromIPC, type Table as ArrowTable } from 'apache-arrow'
 export class HttpLancedbClient {
   private readonly _url: string
 
-  public constructor (url: string, private readonly _apiKey: string) {
+  public constructor (
+    url: string,
+    private readonly _apiKey: string,
+    private readonly _dbName?: string
+  ) {
     this._url = url
   }
 
@@ -49,7 +53,8 @@ export class HttpLancedbClient {
               {
                 headers: {
                   'Content-Type': 'application/json',
-                  'x-api-key': this._apiKey
+                  'x-api-key': this._apiKey,
+                  ...(this._dbName !== undefined ? { 'x-lancedb-database': this._dbName } : {})
                 },
                 responseType: 'arraybuffer',
                 timeout: 10000
diff --git a/node/src/remote/index.ts b/node/src/remote/index.ts
index 4c1a81a4..4078a04d 100644
--- a/node/src/remote/index.ts
+++ b/node/src/remote/index.ts
@@ -37,8 +37,13 @@ export class RemoteConnection implements Connection {
     }
 
     this._dbName = opts.uri.slice('db://'.length)
-    const server = `https://${this._dbName}.${opts.region}.api.lancedb.com`
-    this._client = new HttpLancedbClient(server, opts.apiKey)
+    let server: string
+    if (opts.hostOverride === undefined) {
+      server = `https://${this._dbName}.${opts.region}.api.lancedb.com`
+    } else {
+      server = opts.hostOverride
+    }
+    this._client = new HttpLancedbClient(server, opts.apiKey, opts.hostOverride === undefined ? undefined : this._dbName)
   }
 
   get uri (): string {