PeteCresswell said:
Per VanguardLH:
I find that to be a significant benefit of TeamViewer: being
independent of DynDNS. Every so often I manage to foul up my DynDNS
addresses and it is a big time/mileage saver to be able to connect to
the problem site via TeamViewer and reset the DynDNS address.
DynDNS used to have free accounts (which, as I recall, limited you to a
maximum of 2 host lookups). Then they reduce it to allow a maximum of
only 2 hostname lookups. Then signup for free accounts ended but you do
a trial. Start a trial, terminate it, and as a reward you get the
limited free account. Apparently they killed that trick so you no
longer get a reward for trying their trial. Another trick (if it still
works) is noted at:
http://boomshadow.net/tech/how-to-still-get-a-free-dyndns-account/
It used to be that all you needed to update your free account to keep it
from being idle too long and expiring to get deleted was to use their
local DNS updater client. Their client would login and update your
account to reflect your current IP address. That login kept alive your
free account. As I recall, they changed that and now you have to
separately login to their web site to keep alive your free account.
Getting and keeping a free DynDNS account became too much a nuisance. I
had a grandfathered account (mine existed before they started farking
over signup for free accounts) but let mine perish by removing their DNS
updater client and let my account languish until it idle expired and got
deleted.
TeamViewer, LogMeIn, Mikogo, etc., require cooperation at both
endpoints. The advantage with DDNS was being open ended: you setup your
end and then anyone could connect to it, like operating your own web
server using one of their courtesy hostnames. With a free DDNS account
and a free hostname (so you didn't have to pay a registrar for a domain
name), you could run a web server accessible by that hostname. Other
parties didn't have to go through any handshaking as is required by
Teamviewer and its ilk.
No-IP.com (
www.noip.com/services/managed_dns/free_dynamic_dns.html)
still has free DDNS service, so if I need a DDNS setup then I'll look at
using them. Alas, it looks like No-IP only gives you one choice for the
domain (.no-ip.info) used with your hostname (<yourhost>.no-ip.info).