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.
