Dynamic DNS services

[cameo]

I've been using the free dlinkddns.com service that was offered with my
D-link DIR-825 router. Despite the domain name, the service was really
hosted by dyndns.com. However, lately I've noticed a lot of blockage
from the service and when I look at dyndns I am redirected to
dyn.com/dns which does not even offer free service any more. So I've
been wondering if the frequent blockage is a deliberate attempt on their
part to "encourage" their clients to paid service.

In any case, I decided to look for another free DDNS service and I
wonder which one would most of you recommend from experience. The one
that looks promising is the no-ip.com but I have not heard of them
before. How about you?

 

[Nil]

I've been using the free dlinkddns.com service that was offered
with my D-link DIR-825 router. Despite the domain name, the
service was really hosted by dyndns.com. However, lately I've
noticed a lot of blockage from the service and when I look at
dyndns I am redirected to dyn.com/dns which does not even offer
free service any more. So I've been wondering if the frequent
blockage is a deliberate attempt on their part to "encourage"
their clients to paid service.

In any case, I decided to look for another free DDNS service and I
wonder which one would most of you recommend from experience. The
one that looks promising is the no-ip.com but I have not heard of
them before. How about you?

I'll be interested to see the responses to this. I have an account at
dyndns.com (now dyn.com, apparently) and it still works. I can log in
and change my options if I want. I guess I'm grandfathered in. You're
right, though, I see no sign of any free service currently offered. I
should be aware of any good alternatives, in case I get booted out.

 

[G. Morgan]

In any case, I decided to look for another free DDNS service and I
wonder which one would most of you recommend from experience. The one
that looks promising is the no-ip.com but I have not heard of them
before. How about you?

I have used no-ip before. We used it on PC based DVR's, and had our own
domain name (but they have plenty to choose from). As long as the
Updater runs in the tray always, you're good to go. Very easy to use.

 

[Zaidy036]

I'll be interested to see the responses to this. I have an account at
dyndns.com (now dyn.com, apparently) and it still works. I can log in
and change my options if I want. I guess I'm grandfathered in. You're
right, though, I see no sign of any free service currently offered. I
should be aware of any good alternatives, in case I get booted out.

It is still free. One has to respond to their email once a month to
maintain the account or pay a nominal fee.

My DLink DIR-655 disconnected for some reason and last week I deleted my
account at DynDNS (Dyn.com) and immediately started a new one using the
same ID and password and had no problem reestablishing the service.

 

[richard]

I've been using the free dlinkddns.com service that was offered with my
D-link DIR-825 router. Despite the domain name, the service was really
hosted by dyndns.com. However, lately I've noticed a lot of blockage
from the service and when I look at dyndns I am redirected to
dyn.com/dns which does not even offer free service any more. So I've
been wondering if the frequent blockage is a deliberate attempt on their
part to "encourage" their clients to paid service.

In any case, I decided to look for another free DDNS service and I
wonder which one would most of you recommend from experience. The one
that looks promising is the no-ip.com but I have not heard of them
before. How about you?

for a few bucks a month you can have your own domain and not rely on a
service.
besides, it could be your ISP that is doing the blocking and limiting your
usage. Many ISP's don't allow this anyway.

 

[VanguardLH]

I'll be interested to see the responses to this. I have an account at
dyndns.com (now dyn.com, apparently) and it still works. I can log in
and change my options if I want. I guess I'm grandfathered in. You're
right, though, I see no sign of any free service currently offered. I
should be aware of any good alternatives, in case I get booted out.

DynDNS.com (now DNS.com) has l-o-t-s of domain names. Some are for
their own use alone. Many are for you to pick a domain as your own
(i.e., the domain to which visitor go but DynDNS redirects to your
current IP address - which means if you have a dynamic IP address that
you need to use their DNS updater client).

Every service has peaks of high usage. Do a traceroute to see what
hosts are between you and the DynDNS DNS server. Could be one of them
is slow. Routing is NOT dynamic and why there's a protocol to get
routers to update their tables but sometimes an admin has to intercede.

DynDNS shortened their name to Dyn. Who knows why. Maybe they're
contemplating on adding other services than just the DNS redirection
(which is just one of their DNS services). They already added e-mail
services.

*Dyn.com stopped issuing new free accounts about November 9, 2011 and
without any notice to their free account customers. That means you
cannot create a new free account but you can still keep using your old
free account - until Dyn decides for whatever reason, like expiring an
idle account after 30 days, to delete your old account and then you no
longer have access to any free services at Dyn. Old accounts got
grandfathered in (but they reduced features long before that). Dyn[DNS]
can no longer be recommended for free DNS redirect services because they
don't offer them anymore.*

At one point, I believe, you could have up to 8 redirections (DNS
lookups) pointing at one, or more, or your hosts. Then they dropped it
to just 2 DNS domains. With them trying to hide their free service, I
suspect they intend to drop it.

Free accounts have always been a bit tenuous at DynDNS. Why? Because
if you don't do an IP update to your free DynDNS account in 30 days then
they consider it abandoned and delete your account. You have no control
over when their DNS updater client will update your DynDNS account.
I've seen an interval of 28 days which is way too damn close. If you
power down your host and are away for a month (a very long vacation,
illness, hospitalized, or some emergency), you lose your account. If
there is a problem with their DNS updater client connecting to them and
getting your account updated, you won't know until you can no longer
login or the DNS redirect fails because your account got deleted.

On whatever host you run their DNS updater client (to get your Dyn
account updated so it doesn't expire from being idle for 30 days -
although I've seen them terminate after 25 days), you better keep that
host powered up 24x7 and also ensure it always has Internet access and a
responsive route between your host and theirs.

Dyn aka DynDNS dropped their free DNS redirection service. Guess they
no longer need use unpaid leeching users feature and load testing their
systems and decided to go completely commercial. Even if you have a
still-working Dyn[DNS] account, you might want to consider setting up an
account elsewhere, like No-IP, since if you lose your free Dyn account
then you cannot get it reestablished or a new account. Alas, when one
provider drops their free service, it can be contagious so other DNS
redirection providers may follow.

 

[cameo]

I have used no-ip before. We used it on PC based DVR's, and had our own
domain name (but they have plenty to choose from). As long as the
Updater runs in the tray always, you're good to go. Very easy to use.

One of the reason DynDNS would block you is not that you seldom use
their service but that you do it too often. My current problem might be
related to that one because I was trying to set up some complicated
virtual server and port forwarding situation and had to reboot the
router several times till that got working. The router's built-in DDNS
client probably hit dyndns too often. Soon after that I got blocked.
There is a FAQ about that on their site and they suggest to get a paid
service to get some leniency from them in such situations. So I don't
know if they will restore my service after a while or that was the last
straw. In any case, I might give no-ip.com a try.

I just don't like the idea of a separate DDNS Windows client which
requires me to have my PC up and running even when I might be on a
longer vacation. That's why the client in the router appeals to me so
much. Besides, it's the perfect place for a DDNS client to reside as
they do work together, don't they? Unforunately my router only offers
the dlinkddns.com and the dyndns.com (free or paid.) They are now
essentially the same server. I've recently bought an inexpensive IP
camera for home security and to my surprise even its firmware offers a
choice of 3 free ddns clients: dyndns.org, 3322.org and oray.net. I
never heard of the last two and would probably not trust them, anyway.
Besides I should not really need the ddns client in my cam behind the
router if I have a ddns client in the router itself.

 

[VanguardLH]

One of the reason DynDNS would block you is not that you seldom use
their service but that you do it too often. My current problem might be
related to that one because I was trying to set up some complicated
virtual server and port forwarding situation and had to reboot the
router several times till that got working. The router's built-in DDNS
client probably hit dyndns too often. Soon after that I got blocked.

I believe you get blocked for 24 hours (from the last update attempt) if
you update too often. They don't specify how many is too many (they
just say "dozens"). It also appears it is when you repeatedly attempt
to update your account with the *same* IP address; i.e., you keep
updating but there's no change so you are wasting their resources,
especially for a free account. If your IP address was different each
time, like you are roaming with a laptop and using wifi connects to
different providers as you move around, then maybe they don't count that
as abuse as each wifi provider is going to give you a different
dynamically assigned IP address. You'd have to be roaming around a LOT
to get "dozens" of new IP addresses from LOTS of wifi hotspots.

http://dyn.com/support/clients/
"Why am I being blocked for abusive updates?"

which says:

"We allow dozens of abusive updates before a host is blocked (to allow
for test updates and mistakes)"

I suppose if it is extreme, like hundreds instead of dozens of same-IP-
address updates, they may disable your account and you'll have to
contact them to reenable it - after you placate them in proving you
won't be abusive again (i.e., you fixed the problem at your end).

Here's there abuse policy:

http://dyn.com/support/abuse/

They say an e-mail gets sent to you to unblock your account. So if you
used a disposable webmail account or an expiring/self-destruct alias
then you won't get their e-mails. If you don't want to give them your
true e-mail address then create a special-use account just to receive
e-mails from them (or use a whitelist to opt-in to known good senders
while e-mail from all other senders are immediately discarded/trashed).
You are expected to have a legit, active, and monitored e-mail address
for them to send you notices and it's how they reply if you ask them for
help. For example, if you don't use a DNS updater client to keep your
account alive before the 30-day idle expiration interval or you don't do
it manually by logging into your Dyn account, they send an e-mail
telling you your account will expire and get deleted in 5 days. Well,
if you used a bogus e-mail address then you won't get notified and your
account dies from non-use. If they expire your hostname, they send an
e-mail about that, too.

 

[VanguardLH]

I've been using the free dlinkddns.com service that was offered with my
D-link DIR-825 router. Despite the domain name, the service was really
hosted by dyndns.com. However, lately I've noticed a lot of blockage
from the service and when I look at dyndns I am redirected to
dyn.com/dns which does not even offer free service any more. So I've
been wondering if the frequent blockage is a deliberate attempt on their
part to "encourage" their clients to paid service.

In any case, I decided to look for another free DDNS service and I
wonder which one would most of you recommend from experience. The one
that looks promising is the no-ip.com but I have not heard of them
before. How about you?

Something to ponder: does your D-Link router have a setting for when it
will do an update even if its WAN-side IP address have not changed?

I ask because many routers that have the DDNS feature will only do an
update (connect and login into your DDNS account) when their WAN-side IP
address (what the outside sees for your network) changes. If you are
using broadband Internet (DSL, cable) then it could be months before
your IP address changes. That means your router doesn't see an IP
address change for months and when it does then it is far too late as
your free account died after 1 month of being idle (no updates).

I had an old D-Link and now use a Linksys oldie (BEFR41) at home and
they only connect to update when the ISP's DHCP server assigns a new IP
address for my router. That could be a l-o-n-g time. I couldn't use
the router's DDNS feature because my DDNS account would die long before
the router's IP address had changed. So I had to use the DNS updater
client that runs on one of my hosts (any host because when it connects
the DDNS servers sees the IP address from my router to update to that IP
address).

If you're using your router's DDNS feature, see if it has an update
interval setting. If so, make it something like 10 or 20 days. If not,
check if it has a hardcoded update interval and that it is far less than
30 days. If there is no update interval setting and the manual says
nothing about when the router's DDNS function does an update, figure it
won't do an update until the router's WAN-side IP changes - and that's
far too long and you'll end up with a deleted free DDNS account.

 

[Evan Platt]

for a few bucks a month you can have your own domain and not rely on a
service.

You are still relying on a service.

besides, it could be your ISP that is doing the blocking and limiting your
usage. Many ISP's don't allow this anyway.

WTF? richard, please refrain from giving incorrect advice.

 

[G. Morgan]

for a few bucks a month you can have your own domain and not rely on a
service.
besides, it could be your ISP that is doing the blocking and limiting your
usage. Many ISP's don't allow this anyway

Let the grown-ups talk, Richard. You don't know what a DDNS service
does.

 

[cameo]

Something to ponder: does your D-Link router have a setting for when it
will do an update even if its WAN-side IP address have not changed?

The router has a timeout value for the DDNS of 576 Hrs, which is 24
days. I could change it but I figure if it worked before, I could just
leave it as it is.

I ask because many routers that have the DDNS feature will only do an
update (connect and login into your DDNS account) when their WAN-side IP
address (what the outside sees for your network) changes. If you are
using broadband Internet (DSL, cable) then it could be months before
your IP address changes. That means your router doesn't see an IP
address change for months and when it does then it is far too late as
your free account died after 1 month of being idle (no updates).

I'm using Comcast broadband and indeed, the assigned IP address stays
the same for quite a long time.

I had an old D-Link and now use a Linksys oldie (BEFR41) at home and
they only connect to update when the ISP's DHCP server assigns a new IP
address for my router. That could be a l-o-n-g time. I couldn't use
the router's DDNS feature because my DDNS account would die long before
the router's IP address had changed. So I had to use the DNS updater
client that runs on one of my hosts (any host because when it connects
the DDNS servers sees the IP address from my router to update to that IP
address).

If you're using your router's DDNS feature, see if it has an update
interval setting. If so, make it something like 10 or 20 days. If not,
check if it has a hardcoded update interval and that it is far less than
30 days. If there is no update interval setting and the manual says
nothing about when the router's DDNS function does an update, figure it
won't do an update until the router's WAN-side IP changes - and that's
far too long and you'll end up with a deleted free DDNS account.

I'm not sure how the router acts when it is rebooted. It might hit the
DDNS servers at every reboot, even if the assigned IP did not change. So
my suspicion is that perhaps that caused the blockage by dyndns. But it
also might be that I screwed up something with my virtual server or port
forwarding scheme for my IP cams, so that's something I still need to
check. But thanks for all the tips I've got so far from all of you.

Here is something I'm not sure: given that the router has both virtual
server and port forwarding features that duplicate each other's function
to a large degree, it would be good to know which of the two takes
precedence. I don't see any info on that in the DIR-825 docs. Having
more than one IP cam, I do have to use the virtual server because all
cams use port 80 but to distinguish from the WAN side, I have to use
different phoney public IP numbers that the virtual server maps to the
private port 80 of each cam's LAN IP address. I am using unassigned
TCP/UDP ports for public port numbers. So I am still experimenting with
these settings and in trying to isolate the problem I'll have to reduce
my config to the simple 1-cam setup that used to work with a simple port
80 forwarding and once that works, I'll gradually add more cams to see
at which point I get into a problem.

 

[cameo]

I believe you get blocked for 24 hours (from the last update attempt) if
you update too often. They don't specify how many is too many (they
just say "dozens"). It also appears it is when you repeatedly attempt
to update your account with the *same* IP address; i.e., you keep
updating but there's no change so you are wasting their resources,
especially for a free account. If your IP address was different each
time, like you are roaming with a laptop and using wifi connects to
different providers as you move around, then maybe they don't count that
as abuse as each wifi provider is going to give you a different
dynamically assigned IP address. You'd have to be roaming around a LOT
to get "dozens" of new IP addresses from LOTS of wifi hotspots.

http://dyn.com/support/clients/
"Why am I being blocked for abusive updates?"

which says:

"We allow dozens of abusive updates before a host is blocked (to allow
for test updates and mistakes)"

I suppose if it is extreme, like hundreds instead of dozens of same-IP-
address updates, they may disable your account and you'll have to
contact them to reenable it - after you placate them in proving you
won't be abusive again (i.e., you fixed the problem at your end).

Here's there abuse policy:

http://dyn.com/support/abuse/

They say an e-mail gets sent to you to unblock your account. So if you
used a disposable webmail account or an expiring/self-destruct alias
then you won't get their e-mails. If you don't want to give them your
true e-mail address then create a special-use account just to receive
e-mails from them (or use a whitelist to opt-in to known good senders
while e-mail from all other senders are immediately discarded/trashed).
You are expected to have a legit, active, and monitored e-mail address
for them to send you notices and it's how they reply if you ask them for
help. For example, if you don't use a DNS updater client to keep your
account alive before the 30-day idle expiration interval or you don't do
it manually by logging into your Dyn account, they send an e-mail
telling you your account will expire and get deleted in 5 days. Well,
if you used a bogus e-mail address then you won't get notified and your
account dies from non-use. If they expire your hostname, they send an
e-mail about that, too.

Yes, I've read it, too, and that's what made me suspect a blockage by
dyndns. However, after a better look at my router's setup I realized
that the problem was right there in the router. I changed some values so
often that I screwed up some things that used to work before. But now
everything is working and that also means that dyndns is working, too.
Sorry for the false alarm, though -- at least for me -- it was not
without learning a few things I was not aware before.
For that, thanks to all of you.

 

[VanguardLH]

I realized that the problem was right there in the router. I changed
some values so often that I screwed up some things that used to work
before. But now everything is working and that also means that dyndns
is working, too.

You've been playing with the QoS (Quality of Service) or priority
settings, haven't you?

 

[cameo]

You've been playing with the QoS (Quality of Service) or priority
settings, haven't you?

I've seen such tab in my router's UI but no, haven't played with it
as I don't really know much about it. What have you found out? Can it help?

 

[VanguardLH]

I've seen such tab in my router's UI but no, haven't played with it
as I don't really know much about it. What have you found out? Can it help?

My old Linksys personal/home-use router doesn't have much for QoS
settings. It does, however, let me assign priority to an intranet
host(s) or for specific port(s). For example, my home PC is the admin
for the network setup and maintenance so I give it priority over the
other intranet hosts. If I need to fix something, I need to fix it now
and not be bothered with whatever traffic the other family is
generating. We use MagicJack here which is a VOIP (voice over IP)
service and found prioritizing its ports through the router helps
eliminate some artifacts, like cutouts and echo delay.

The online product manual for your D-Link DIR-825 router is found at
ftp://ftp.dlink.com/Gateway/dir825/Manual/dir825_manual_110.zip (I don't
know if it's different for the Rev B model). Page 39 talks about their
QoS "engine" (my old Linksys doesn't have near as many features). For
example, it mentions traffic shaping (something that abusive porn/pirate
users bitch about when their ISP implements this). When I enable host
or port priority, I get prompted that this disable the hardcoded QoS
algorithms in my old Linksys router. Without having your D-link model
to play with, I don't know if prioritizing a host or port would disable
their QoS engine but it "looks" like from their manual's images that you
can keep QoS along with prioritizing; i.e., they let you define QoS
engine rules rather than a mutually exclusive decision between rules and
QoS.

Prioritizing my host let me do any research, server connect, or other
intra/Internet access that was needed while others were still doing
stuff online. That they were watching online videos did not impact my
availability or slow me down much. Prioritizing the ports used by the
VOIP service help eliminate some problems with that type of protocol. I
know some users run publicly accessible game servers on their intranet
hosts (which is usually a violation of their ISP's TOS and which can run
afoul of networking shaping done by the ISP or consume their monthly
bandwidth quota) and they prioritize those apps (by prioritizing the
ports they use). I don't bother with online multi-player games or in
running game or TOR servers shared by lots of outside users so that's
something you might want to seek help in the game forums.

 

[cameo]

The online product manual for your D-Link DIR-825 router is found at
ftp://ftp.dlink.com/Gateway/dir825/Manual/dir825_manual_110.zip (I don't
know if it's different for the Rev B model). Page 39 talks about their
QoS "engine" (my old Linksys doesn't have near as many features). For
example, it mentions traffic shaping (something that abusive porn/pirate
users bitch about when their ISP implements this). When I enable host
or port priority, I get prompted that this disable the hardcoded QoS
algorithms in my old Linksys router. Without having your D-link model
to play with, I don't know if prioritizing a host or port would disable
their QoS engine but it "looks" like from their manual's images that you
can keep QoS along with prioritizing; i.e., they let you define QoS
engine rules rather than a mutually exclusive decision between rules and
QoS.

Interesting. My model, BTW, is the A1 revision, so you were probably
looking at the right manual even if it says 1.1.

Prioritizing my host let me do any research, server connect, or other
intra/Internet access that was needed while others were still doing
stuff online. That they were watching online videos did not impact my
availability or slow me down much. Prioritizing the ports used by the
VOIP service help eliminate some problems with that type of protocol. I
know some users run publicly accessible game servers on their intranet
hosts (which is usually a violation of their ISP's TOS and which can run
afoul of networking shaping done by the ISP or consume their monthly
bandwidth quota) and they prioritize those apps (by prioritizing the
ports they use). I don't bother with online multi-player games or in
running game or TOR servers shared by lots of outside users so that's
something you might want to seek help in the game forums.

I don't have as complicated a setup as yours, so I probably don't miss
much in not using that option. However, I am planning adding more IP
cams around my house and that might cause me to reconsider this. Right
now my immediate problem is how I am going to change the port forwarding
scheme in my router for those new cams that each require the same RTSP
port for themselves. Right now I have no idea, so if you could direct me
to a possible solution for that, I would appreciate it.

 

[VanguardLH]

I don't have as complicated a setup as yours, so I probably don't miss
much in not using that option. However, I am planning adding more IP
cams around my house and that might cause me to reconsider this. Right
now my immediate problem is how I am going to change the port forwarding
scheme in my router for those new cams that each require the same RTSP
port for themselves. Right now I have no idea, so if you could direct me
to a possible solution for that, I would appreciate it.

Unless the webcam is using software to upload its video stream to some
external server or destination where it can be watched, I don't see much
point in prioritizing for it in the router. Besides, if you are doing
something online for video conferencing, I suspect you'll be
communicating over port 80 for HTTP. Prioritizing port 80 would mean
your web browser gets priority over other traffic through the router.
That isn't necessarily bad because I also suspect that the vast majority
of Internet traffic you generate is via HTTP with a web browser.
However, missing a frame or two from video is easily tolerable to your
mind's eye. Since you don't seem to be running heavily accessed servers
and you're the only one in your intranet (no other users generating
Internet traffic) then I don't see the point of prioritizing any ports.
The only host generating traffic will be the one you and only you are
using.

 

[cameo]

Unless the webcam is using software to upload its video stream to some
external server or destination where it can be watched, I don't see much
point in prioritizing for it in the router. Besides, if you are doing
something online for video conferencing, I suspect you'll be
communicating over port 80 for HTTP. Prioritizing port 80 would mean
your web browser gets priority over other traffic through the router.
That isn't necessarily bad because I also suspect that the vast majority
of Internet traffic you generate is via HTTP with a web browser.
However, missing a frame or two from video is easily tolerable to your
mind's eye. Since you don't seem to be running heavily accessed servers
and you're the only one in your intranet (no other users generating
Internet traffic) then I don't see the point of prioritizing any ports.
The only host generating traffic will be the one you and only you are
using.

Actually, I was planning to watch my IP cams from outside with my
Android phone and upload the video to some cloud service. My old Linksys
cam only uses HTTP, so that's no a problem, but the newer ones aalso use
RTSP and RTP ports which need to be different for each cam.

 

[VanguardLH]

Actually, I was planning to watch my IP cams from outside with my
Android phone and upload the video to some cloud service. My old Linksys
cam only uses HTTP, so that's no a problem, but the newer ones aalso use
RTSP and RTP ports which need to be different for each cam.

See what happens with the router's default setup before deciding to play
with its settings regarding QoS or priority.