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Setting up Dynamic DNS yourself

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djBon2112

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Jul 29, 2006
Messages
5,279
I'm on Bell Sympatico, which you Canadian/Ontario members might know gives out dynamic IP addresses. For years I've been using dyndns.com with my domain name (boniface.ath.cx), but today I was thinking about buying my own actual domain so I can do some more advanced stuff with it. However, from what I can tell dyndns doesn't let you use your own domain name for their service, at least not without paying.

So, does anyone know how to set this kind of service up for yourself? I assume it wouldn't be that hard, you'd just need to run a public DNS server off the computer and have it update whenever my WAN interface disconnects and reconnects (since that's when I get a new IP).

Suggestions?
 
You can forward your domain to the dyndns addy, or, just parts of it.

I have my domain setup to use gmail for email, dreamhost to host the web content, then, use a sub domain to point to the house.
 
The easiest thing to do would be to just set up a CNAME record on your own domain to point at dyndns or whatever service you use (I like afraid.org). In fact, I think that afraid.org will host your DNS for you and allow you to use their own dynamic DNS on any domain hosted there. I think, it's been a while since I used them for anything other than backup DNS.

Setting it up yourself really depends on what DNS server you're going to use and how you want it to work.
 
Well, I'd like to avoid using an external service if I have to, especially if I have to pay them anything. And forwarding wouldn't really work because I want to use my domain for e-mail and other stuff besides web. I have a pfsense router and a decent knowledge of Linux so I can probably set it up myself, I'd just need a guide.
 
My method is free other then buying the domain.
 
Most registrars offer free DNS hosting for domain names registered through them. I just used my registrars DNS hosting. I placed aliases (CNAME) records in my DNS zone pointing at a dynamic DNS entry which my router updated at dlink.
 
djBon2112 said:
Well, I'd like to avoid using an external service if I have to, especially if I have to pay them anything. And forwarding wouldn't really work because I want to use my domain for e-mail and other stuff besides web. I have a pfsense router and a decent knowledge of Linux so I can probably set it up myself, I'd just need a guide.
Click to expand...

Do you operate a DNS server, or can you, to host your domain? Otherwise you're going to need to rely on someone else to do that for you...

The way I do it is with RFC2136 DNS updates to my BIND server. pfSense has built-in support for sending updates, but IME it's quite buggy and doesn't really work properly, at least for me I had to make some changes to the source to make it work. The server-side is also a bit non-trivial. Something like: http://dag.wieers.com/howto/bits/bind-ddns.php
 
I think it all depends on your registrar. For example, namecheap lets you dynamically update the IP that your domain points to. They even have their own Dynamic DNS Client.
 
keenan said:
Do you operate a DNS server, or can you, to host your domain? Otherwise you're going to need to rely on someone else to do that for you...

The way I do it is with RFC2136 DNS updates to my BIND server. pfSense has built-in support for sending updates, but IME it's quite buggy and doesn't really work properly, at least for me I had to make some changes to the source to make it work. The server-side is also a bit non-trivial. Something like: http://dag.wieers.com/howto/bits/bind-ddns.php
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what you mean. I can set up a DNS server if needed, but right now I just use my ISP provided ones. I don't know that much about how DNS really works.

Stereodude said:
I think it all depends on your registrar. For example, namecheap lets you dynamically update the IP that your domain points to. They even have their own Dynamic DNS Client.
Click to expand...

I'm looking at them now, any other registrars that can do this? Can Godaddy? I ask because I (a) already have an account there, and (b) the domain I want is like $10 there versus $25 on almost every other site.

I plan on using my domain for a number of things, first and foremost web access, but also as the domain name for my network, setting up e-mail addresses for my family, etc. so that's why I don't think sc0tty's suggestion would work, though I could be wrong.
 
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Bah, I just noticed a massive flaw in my idea: since the DNS server would have to be behind the IP that's changing, it's a nice catch-22 whenever the address updates. So basically, I'm SOL :(

Well then, are there any good dynamic DNS providers that let you use your own domain? I'm buying a .me domain for my family name and I want to use that. At this point I would be willing to spend a bit of money for the service, but not much.
 
djBon2112 said:
Bah, I just noticed a massive flaw in my idea: since the DNS server would have to be behind the IP that's changing, it's a nice catch-22 whenever the address updates. So basically, I'm SOL :(
Click to expand...
This is why you need a third-party service to host DNS for you, or you need a server somewhere to run DNS on (that has a static IP).

Well then, are there any good dynamic DNS providers that let you use your own domain? I'm buying a .me domain for my family name and I want to use that. At this point I would be willing to spend a bit of money for the service, but not much.
Click to expand...

I think afraid.org will allow you to do it. If not though, you can use any free DNS provider and any dynamic DNS provider, then set up a CNAME record on your main domain to alias it to the dynamic DNS host.
 
keenan said:
This is why you need a third-party service to host DNS for you, or you need a server somewhere to run DNS on (that has a static IP).



I think afraid.org will allow you to do it. If not though, you can use any free DNS provider and any dynamic DNS provider, then set up a CNAME record on your main domain to alias it to the dynamic DNS host.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice, I'm just going to use afraid.org!
 
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