Recommended Dynamic DNS provider?

123

123

Senior Member
I've used the free Dynamic DNS service from DynDNS.org but it has a small catch that has proven to be annoying.

DynDNS assumes your IP address will change at least once a month. If it does not, you are informed (by email) that the account is inactive and, unless you click an 'activation' link or buy into a better plan, will be terminated.

My IP address never changes so I'm obliged to click the activation link once a month. I've overlooked to do that twice so I've needed to re-subscribe to DynDNS. I've considered switching to No-IP but I believe their free service comes with ads (can someone confirm this?).

Can someone recommend a free Dynamic DNS service that does not have this 'no activity' policy?
 
Some of the third-party firmwares for routers will ping the service every often so this issue goes away. Check DD-WRT and some others. ?Tomatoe or somsuch.

So far, I have just responded the their monthly email, but I've got a WRT54G that I know I could flash.
 
there is also an app that I thought I got from them that would also report in once a month to say the address is still the same.
 
AceCannon said:
Some of the third-party firmwares for routers will ping the service every often so this issue goes away. Check DD-WRT and some others. ?Tomatoe or somsuch.

So far, I have just responded the their monthly email, but I've got a WRT54G that I know I could flash.
Click to expand...

Yeah since installing OpenWRT on my router this issue went away for me.
 
123 said:
I've used the free Dynamic DNS service from DynDNS.org but it has a small catch that has proven to be annoying.

DynDNS assumes your IP address will change at least once a month. If it does not, you are informed (by email) that the account is inactive and, unless you click an 'activation' link or buy into a better plan, will be terminated.

My IP address never changes so I'm obliged to click the activation link once a month. I've overlooked to do that twice so I've needed to re-subscribe to DynDNS. I've considered switching to No-IP but I believe their free service comes with ads (can someone confirm this?).

Can someone recommend a free Dynamic DNS service that does not have this 'no activity' policy?
Click to expand...

Don't switch to noIP if you don't like the activation emails. They come every 30 days too. It wasn't always like that, then they started sending them for the free accounts but you could automate the process by using CURL to 'click' the link every so often, then they changed the process so that now there is a captcha word to enter as well. That's when I switched to dyndns. I've never gotten an email from them but maybe it's because the dlink router I use does the updating so I don't have to use the client. My IP address is supposed to be static, but it hasn't changed in over three years.

If your IP address is that 'undynamic' also, you could always register a cheap domain ($2.99 .info) through godaddy and point it to your IP.

Terry
 
roussell said:
If your IP address is that 'undynamic' also, you could always register a cheap domain ($2.99 .info) through godaddy and point it to your IP.
Click to expand...
Domain registrations require two IP addresses for name servers (one each for primary and secondary). Moreover, you must run a DNS server on that IP. While a lot of us run our own DNS servers on our networks, most of us don't meet the requirement for the secondary IP address. This can be overcome if you buy a static IP block (varies from ISP) which lets you assign external IP addresses via your own DHCP server. Things can get complex hosting your own name servers - really cool for an advanced solution, but requires a fair amount of networking knowledge.

To avoid the cost of doing that, I use dyndns and have a CNAME record on my domain that acts as an alias to the dyndns address (which is very ugly). This, of course, requires a decent webhost (which I have anyways) that lets you manipulate the DNS records for your domain. I'm not aware if godaddy lets you do this with their cheap (free???) hosting.

Kent
 
KentDub said:
roussell said:
If your IP address is that 'undynamic' also, you could always register a cheap domain ($2.99 .info) through godaddy and point it to your IP.
Click to expand...
Domain registrations require two IP addresses for name servers (one each for primary and secondary). Moreover, you must run a DNS server on that IP. While a lot of us run our own DNS servers on our networks, most of us don't meet the requirement for the secondary IP address. This can be overcome if you buy a static IP block (varies from ISP) which lets you assign external IP addresses via your own DHCP server. Things can get complex hosting your own name servers - really cool for an advanced solution, but requires a fair amount of networking knowledge.

To avoid the cost of doing that, I use dyndns and have a CNAME record on my domain that acts as an alias to the dyndns address (which is very ugly). This, of course, requires a decent webhost (which I have anyways) that lets you manipulate the DNS records for your domain. I'm not aware if godaddy lets you do this with their cheap (free???) hosting.

Kent
Click to expand...

I too use a CNAME pointed to the dyndns address (through Network Solutions) for my primary at-home address. While I agree that it isn't too pretty, it works well.

You're right about godaddy, I have several domains registered through them, but most of them point to name servers that I maintain elsewhere... You do need to distinct name servers for their cheap 'parking' accounts and you can't create any new hosts for the domain without upgrading their service, at which point one could just pay for an upgrade with no-ip.com and use them directly. I thnk their cheapest is only 6-7 bucks/year.


Terry
 
I've never looked into an 'update client' because my Netgear router has a built-in function to update DynDNS if its WAN IP address changes. Given that the address never changes, the router never communicates with DynDNS ... and I get a monthly inactivity warning from them.

Are you folks saying that an 'update client' will periodically communicate with DynDNS even if the IP address remains unchanged?
 
roussell said:
I too use a CNAME pointed to the dyndns address (through Network Solutions) for my primary at-home address. While I agree that it isn't too pretty, it works well.
Click to expand...
I ment that the dyndns address in my browser isn't pretty, where my own domain is :) The solution... well, with proper caching of the record it shouldn't matter :) It's too bad that most ISP's don't offer static IP's. This is one area where cable seems to still be better than FIOS.

123 said:
I've never looked into an 'update client' because my Netgear router has a built-in function to update DynDNS if its WAN IP address changes. Given that the address never changes, the router never communicates with DynDNS ... and I get a monthly inactivity warning from them.

Are you folks saying that an 'update client' will periodically communicate with DynDNS even if the IP address remains unchanged?
Click to expand...
Yes
 
roussell said:
KentDub said:
roussell said:
If your IP address is that 'undynamic' also, you could always register a cheap domain ($2.99 .info) through godaddy and point it to your IP.
Click to expand...

Kent
Click to expand...

You're right about godaddy, I have several domains registered through them, but most of them point to name servers that I maintain elsewhere... You do need to distinct name servers for their cheap 'parking' accounts and you can't create any new hosts for the domain without upgrading their service, at which point one could just pay for an upgrade with no-ip.com and use them directly. I thnk their cheapest is only 6-7 bucks/year.

Terry
Click to expand...

Actually after wading through godaddy's horrible config panels, it turns out that you do have control of all of your dns records through their "total dns control" panel. I was able to add a "home" host to one of my $.89 (yes, 89 cents) .info 'parked' domains and point it to my charter internet ipaddress. So, while not free you can get dns control for about 89 cents per year.

Terry
 
123 said:
Are you folks saying that an 'update client' will periodically communicate with DynDNS even if the IP address remains unchanged?
Click to expand...
Yes, and it complies with the DynDNS rules of not-too-often and not-too-rarely. IIRC, it defaults to a touch every 25 days, if the IP hasn't changed. It can also notify you by email when your IP address changes & when the update client "touches" DynDNS.

My employer has recently started blocking anything to do with dynamic names, so I have to connect to my house from work via the actual IP now. My IP is pretty stable, but it does change occasionally when the cable company reroutes or swaps head units or something and it is nice to get the email with the new address.
 
Also, as an emergency you can set up an auto-reply rule on your email client at home (if you always leave it on) and check the headers for your ipaddress.

For example, I setup a "get ip" rule in email that checked for "get ip" in the address and then just replied to the sender. Looking at the headers of the returned email will reveal your IP address. I've have to use that a few times in the past before my ip address stabilized and dyndns/no-ip didn't work for one reason or another. Obviously this depends on your client being able to view the email headers so that rules out most email clients, but anything desktop-based should work fine.

Terry
 
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