+1 for freedns.afraid.org ... you can use one of the existing/open entries, you can put up your own domain for yours and others' use (did this for bbs.io, though I nuke entries that aren't bbs related), or you can pay for private use of your own domain. Works great overall.
DuckDNS[0] is another alternative that I've been seeing posted on reddit. Works exactly like the rest -- curl a URL to update your IP. Really nice staff. I've got a PR[1] for a homebrew formula for duckdns which uses launchd rather than cron (which has been deprecated since OSX 10.8).
I switched from DynDNS to NoIP last year, but I'm probably going to switch again soon; NoIP's Mac auto-updater is broken and they don't seem to give a shit about fixing it.
I use https://freedns.afraid.org/. I appreciate that they support a URL that you can cURL, but I've never actually needed that, as Comcast never changes my IP address (although they're allowed to do so, I've had the same address for at least 3 years). Personally, I just use a subdomain on one of the domains they manage, and use a CNAME on my own domain to point to that.
Another +1 for freedns.afraid.org. I used them for years on my home FreeBSD gateway serving my domain on a dynamic IP, and didn't once have an issue. I think I only emailed the owner once or twice about some small matter, but he responded both times politely and quickly. For a free service, pretty impressive. Highly worth supplying a donation I would say if you use it.
Rackspace offers DNS with all cloud accounts and doesn't charge for it. As far as I know, you can sign up for a cloud account and not actually purchase any services, though I would probably put some files in Cloud Files so you're at least paying them something to keep the account around. You can update your records via their API or via their control panel and there are no per-change or per-domain fees.
You're getting professionally-run DNS servers, distributed with anycast.
Route 53 is also really cheap if you're an AWS kind of guy/gal for 50 cents a domain. The usage charges are beyond low (think 1 cent) for smaller sites.
Cool, glad you mentioned this! I've used namecheap for a while and never noticed this feature! This will save me the trouble of having an outside service for DDNS.
For anyone else looking for this feature, log in to namecheap.com and click Manage Domains, click the domain you want to use DDNS with, then look for the Dynamic DNS link on the left menu under Miscellaneous.
I decided to switch to Namecheap just for this feature. Their domain interface isn't fantastic (it's good enough), but it allows me to consolidate all my DNS management there, plus I don't have to use extra services to update my hostnames, AND ddclient supports their API directly.
+1 for namecheap. You don't even have to pay for anything. I started using DDNS at Dyn and then ended up registering a bunch of domain names. Now I'm going to move them to Namecheap which already does my DNS (for free) and now DDNS.
Actually, I've been wondering lately, just how common are router compromises? I ask because I have a Synology unit that was infected with some pretty insidious malware just by being out on the open internet and having a slightly out-of-date OS version. Since it's now easily possible to scan the entire IPv4 address space, it makes me wonder if having out-of-date firmware would basically guarantee a hacked router these days.
It's not fear of backdoors that make me run a specific router.
If I want free wifi access around the country (via BT Openzone) then I need to run BT's router (which includes the magic to run a separate managed public Wifi access point via BT Fon).
It's annoying, but I can live with it (especially when they get around to upgrading my cabinet to FTTC and I get 60Mbps/20Mbps).
I'm in the same situation, but my FON router sits behind my main router and isolated from my internal network. It still shares Internet access just fine :)
Oh, I'm not actually in the UK at all, I just meant I also need to keep a FON router connected.
In that case, I assume the best option would be to put a decent router behind the Homehub (configuring the latter in bridge mode or similar) and then treating all traffic beyond the inner router as public.
Of course, in your haste to post a reddit-style sarcastic comment, you missed or glossed over the fact that free software such as OpenWRT or PFSense can be audited and patched by the public, and is not controlled by some corporation under undue influence by the NSA.
Sure the software can, theoretically be audited. But 1) Requires someone actually auditing software. Which judging by the state of OpenSSL flaws, we're doing a shit-tier job at. and 2) Requires people patching the "internet of things" cringe - which we've also seen isn't happening. Furthermore, most of the devices are dependent on closed source drivers for wireless devices.
And you're still just hoping the compromise isn't at the hardware level, because then you're truly up a creek.
Hell, we don't have access to the baseband software in our cellphones or the SIM chip, which can happily take control of the application processor and do what it needs to do, yet we all clamor around the fact that Android is Open and thusly Auditable and that makes it automatically superior in every way.
With enough eyes all bugs are shallow. But nobody's actually looking at the software, so bugs live on, and the big boogie man NSA can still be anywhere and everywhere.
There are Eyes In Your Radio. They're not going anywhere.
Yup - this is the situation I'm in. My ISP requires a specific modem/router combo. As an alternative, I'm going to switch to running a client on my machine.
Yeah, that's why I still used the service even when they went more annoying. I guess I'll need to finish the work I started on moving to an alternative solution.
I started paying them a couple years ago for my DynDNS service, and have had no trouble in that time. I'm glad they chose to keep the service rather than shutting it down. And I'm especially glad to see them charging a small fee for a valuable service, rather than running it for free: https://blog.pinboard.in/2011/12/don_t_be_a_free_user/
IMO they could have handled the transition to non-free better. But every time they took away some of the free stuff, you have seen popular outrage. They pissed off lots of people that could have been potential customers and I was one of them.
Their lowest price plan is 25$ per year. If I only would want the most basic feature, that is having 1 or 2 dynamic ip addresses bound to a specific DNS entry (not even wildcard or email redirection), that is too much. I would have gladly paid 5$ for that even if only to get rid of the 30 day renewal routine.
But when the time came for me to register my own domain, I didn't want DynDNS to do it. I've seen how they treated me when I was a non-paying customer.
Yeah, I thought about switching to a different provider for a few minutes but the time it would take is worth more than $20 to me. Plus, their free service has been working perfectly for years, so why switch now?
I was also unhappy with their customer service from an incident a couple years back and won't be using them again. Not really sure why they get so many recommendations here.
Was looking for a registrar for my domains that supports DNSSEC (for the TLDs that support it, obviously) and wanted to leave my previous (really cheap one).
I heard about their 'no bullshit' slogan and their rather good reputation.
Searching online confirmed that
- Gandi supports DNSSEC for the domains I care about (.sh, .de) [1]
- Gandi supports all my (cc)TLDs (.name, .de, .sh, .net) [2]
- Gandis prices are reasonable [2]
Pay attention: [2] lists all their supported domains with prices. If you expand "Asia/Oceania" you'll find .sh for example. With a price. What isn't obvious right away unless you're into hovering madly: Each row is a link. That's important.
So, prices good, good reputation, dnssec support -> Let's transfer all my domains in one go. Payed, worked - but the .sh domain failed with no sensible error message at all. Retried. Contacted customer support and waited. Meanwhile I was billed for the rest and parts of my domains were transfered already. At no point I got a reasonable explanation in their interface.
CSR replies "Yeah, bad luck. That's a corporate domain. We have a list of domains for corporations only (now go and click a link on [2]), you'd have to talk to the corporate sales team".
Contacted them, waited, waited, random bullshit (sorry, with a slogan like that..) as reply ("Just subscribe to our corporate services for a while, register the domains while they're active" - "Yeah, I'm a private person and your website doesn't let me do that" - "Awwwwww, bad luck then").
Denied my incoming transfers, moved the ones that already made it out. My Gandi account is useless and empty. The denied transfers though? They refunded that part of my bill - to my "Gandi prepaid account"...
Short version:
- crappy UI
- half of their TLD support is for corporate clients only, "PLEASE TAKE MY MONEY" won't help (I tried)
- the support wasn't helpful (enough) and the corporate sales guys confused - they obviously didn't look at my account even once before answering
- the refund is a joke
I'm glad I left early.
Sorry for the rant, this is 'fresh' (i.e. the refund happened yesterday, the rest of the ordeal just last week) and so I'm still a bit agitated. I really tried to like them and don't think that I was overly complicated in my requirements.
So, to keep this honest because these threads are still alive and active: In the end (like, just now) Gandi refunded the money - I have no pre-paid account anymore, after complaining they returned the money to me instead.
So pain points:
- user interface
- half of their TLDs are inaccessible, even for inbound transfers of the respective owner
- corporate sales team was .. useless and these business rules really don't smell like 'no bullshit' to me
Upsides (to be fair):
- support replied via mail to all my requests and was generally friendly
- I got my money back in the end (for transfers that didn't happen, so nothing lost on their side either, this is not a courtesy imo)
Gandi also offers free primary DNS. This in itself is nice, but even better is the fact that they have an API to update said DNS. This makes it possible to implement your own dynamic DNS without the need to cname through a third party dynamic dns provider. Just add a simple script to your router, run it at regular intervals (cron is your friend here) and you're set. You'll need an API key for this, these can be had for free through the dashboard.
Most hosting providers and domain sellers will provide this for free.
CloudFlare also offers free DNS (which you can use with a patched version of ddclient). CloudFlare uses anycast, so it's fast, and as a DoS protection company, they tend to be more reliable than many of the other free options.
I have used them for years under their free model. I signed up for 2 years instantly after receiving an email regarding this. In my mind, they have earned it: A great service and free for all these years. I think this is a great way to move from free to paid services.
Hurricane electric offers free dynDNS, free DNS, and also free IPv6 tunneling. https://dns.he.net/ You can even set up an IPv6 tunnel for a dynamic IP and have it update dynamically.
>And it's HE... big name and comes with reliability
Our experience is the opposite. LA to Denver and at least once a week Nagios goes batshit because packetloss pops up to 8% on and off for hours. Partly this is because our unfortunate choice of ISP, IPTP, doesn't understand how BGP works and localprefs HE over everything. But consensus seems to be that they're just overloaded.
I suppose selling for a third or less of other ISPs tends to increase network demand.
What have your bills looked like, if you don't mind my asking? I've been running a VM server on a business cable connection, but thinking on getting rid of that in favor of a few cloud/hosted systems, and virtual DNS.
I always ran a homebrew dynamic dns service on my domains from whatever VPS provider I used at the time. Basically create a new A record on your domain (ex: home.example.com), then run one of these scripts periodically on your home machine to keep that A record updated. Here are are the two that are still relevant:
dyndns has been getting progressively more hostile to free users for years. I thought it was ridiculous years ago when I switched to no-ip.org, I'm surprised that anyone has held on this long.
My memory may be deceiving me but I recall the founder of DynDNS posted in the HN comments on his reasoning of taking outside money and shifting the biz model after initial growth via bootstrapping.
Hopefully someone else recalls and links the HN page.
I have, purely because it was easier (in the last few months) to just keep clicking on a button every 14 days or so[1] than to do all the work to find out what free DNS solutions my router supports, updating the configs (or implementing a cronjob/API call) and then finding everywhere I've buried my dyndns address so that it can use the new one.
Of course I'll have to do that work now, but you never know if Dyn will change their mind so I'll hold out until right near the bitter end.
A single IP of my home router just isn't worth $25 a year IMHO. There are plenty of other companies that offer the service for free so I'll just leave Dyn with (a probably undeserved[2]) negative opinion of them for kicking me out.
1. It was hardly difficult, they sent you a reminder each time that contained the link to click on!
2. Not entirely sure how long I've used Dyn for, the earliest email I can find is one about my host expiring back in February 2006.
I've been on Dyn forever, as a free user to keep a host entry for one remote, nonprofit dynamic-IP server. Starting exactly a year ago, once per month they sent me an email with a link I'd click to keep my free hostname(s) active. Seemed reasonable.
They were one of those services that would repeatedly make the free service worse, in an attempt to get you to upgrade.
At first they changed it so you need to touch your account once every 30 days to keep it active. Using the automated updater counted as touching it.
Then they changed it where the automated updater didn't count anymore, so now you needed to log in manually every 30 days.
Once I didn't get their email, and they purged my whole account. I had to recreate it as a new account, and by now they had severely restricted the list of domains that were available for the free service, so I couldn't get the old domain back.
I realize it was a free account, and what not to do with gifted horses, but sending you an email every 30 days and purging your account if you don't click on it within a very short window is a little too annoying for me.
In a way this step now is more honest. If you don't want the free users, don't offer the free service.
> Once I didn't get their email, and they purged my whole account. I had to recreate it as a new account, and by now they had severely restricted the list of domains that were available for the free service, so I couldn't get the old domain back.
This exact same thing happened to me a few years back - didn't even notice the email, so I lost a name I'd had for years. I get that it wasn't really 'mine' per se; I might have paid for it anyway, since their service at the time was hardly expensive, but cancelling my stuff abruptly seemed... well, not exactly dishonest, I suppose. Let's go with 'distasteful.' I moved over to afraid.org's free dns service, and never looked back. It's sad it took Dyn so long to come out and admit they weren't interested in free users. I hope their new service works out for them, and that their free users are happier in their new homes.
Agreed. I guess they were trying to boot people out gradually, without causing a fuss. But that means many of their free customers lost their domains as a surprise, instead of moving to another service intentionally.
I used to be on EasyDNS and they got acquired by DynDNS many years back. They really have been trying to kick off the free users for a long time. Anyone who's hung on til now is a survivor.
They dropped from 5 free hostnames to 2, in 2010. And they have been enforcing this "log into your account monthly" since at least that time. Not 1 year, but at least 4 years or more. That's how I lost my free hostname - because I missed a month. Thanks Dyn!
They also removed a bunch of domains from their free tier a few years ago. This may help them drive some revenue in the short term, but long term I it is going to make customer acquisition a lot harder. I just switched over to no-ip.com...
What exactly do you expect from a free service? Seems like they're doing more than enough to accommodate you, a user who makes them nothing while costing them something.
Google now offers Cloud DNS, conceptually similar to Amazon Route53. Has a pretty nice CLI and REST API, and serves using Anycast. https://developers.google.com/cloud-dns/
A little known fact: If you have a Brazilian domain, you have free DNS at Registro.br, the official country register.
I stopped to use dyndns since they started doing it some years ago. The interface is a lot better, and you will have quicker responses for your Brazilian visitors.
Actually, there are programs you can install on a pc behind your router, that will perform the same function, i.e. Pinging some dyndns provider other than router's builtin one. i think I used one by namecheap in windows exe form.
Switched to No-IP, took a couple minutes. No big deal, I've never really liked DynDNS anyways, they were far to aggressive in trying to force upgrades.
We've been using dnsmadeeasy[1] for years. There's something dated about their interface/presentation, but the service has been rock solid and fast since day one.
Came here to say the same. DNSMadeEasy doesn't feel _fancy_, but it has always worked great for us. Solid service. Highly recommended.
Edit: Not that it matters much, but it was Textdrive's (née Joyant) recommendation back in '04 that got me to sign up. If anything, they've been around a while.
Yeah, I wrote a little http endpoint that I access with curl in a cron job. The server updates my master DNS git repo and which then updates the data in Route 53.
The DNS stuff is based on a Perl module I wrote called Net::DNS::Create [1]. It allows you to use a little DSL-ish language to create your DNS entries, then compile them into whatever DNS backend you want (Bind, TinyDNS, and Route53 are supported out of the box, and all have been used in production at some point). A quick example of what this might look like is here: https://github.com/caldwell/net-dns-create/blob/master/creat...
Previously I used bind/named for a subdomain, something like d.someshortdomainofmine.tld for a dynamic namespace and updated entries below with a cronjob calling
nsupdate -k /path/to/a/key << _EOF_
server my.server.here
zone d.someshortdomainofmine.tld
update delete foo.d.someshortdomainofmine.tld
update add foo.d.someshortdomainofmine.tld 300 AAAA ipv6here
show
send
_EOF_
which worked just fine and took roughly 20min to get right, including the DNS entries. I'm currently moving to NSD and I'll implement something similar there.
- https://freedns.afraid.org/
- https://ydns.eu/
What I like about these two is that you are able to update the IP by just curl'ing a certain URL, which works great in combination with a cronjob.
Edit: It looks like OP submitted the tracking URL from the newsletter, his ID is probably going to stick out in their analytics.