-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 1
Dynamic DNS
In a nutshell, dynamic DNS allows you to access your device from the Internet even if your IP address changes from time to time.
A DNS domain name refers to (in this context) the dotted address that you type in your browser to access websites. A dynamic DNS service allocates you a unique (fully qualified) domain name for your IP address.
Unfortunately, a DNS domain name is not enough for you to access the device that lives inside your local network from the Internet. You'll also need to make sure you have:
- a public (aka routable) IP address, whether static or dynamic
- a port forwarding rule set up on your router that forwards incoming traffic on port
80(and also443if you use HTTPS) to your device
If you don't already have a dynamic DNS domain name in place, you have a few options to get one.
Some Internet service providers offer dynamic DNS services for their customers. It may be worth contacting your ISP and asking for the availability of such a service.
DuckDNS is a free, simple and straight forward dynamic DNS service. Once your account is registered, it will give you up to 5 domain names of the following form: <subdomain>.duckdns.org. You'll also need the token that is shown on their homepage.
In order to keep your dynamic DNS up-to-date, create the /data/etc/dyndns-update.sh file and place the following DNS command inside:
curl -Ssf "https://www.duckdns.org/update?domains=<subdomain>.duckdns.org&token=<token>"
Afraid.org is a fully fledged DNS service that also offers free dynamic DNS.
The update URL can be found under Dynamic DNS > Direct URL. Just copy the link and add it to /data/etc/dyndns-update.sh:
curl -Ssf "http://freedns.afraid.org/dynamic/update.php?<yourtoken>"
For NoIP, you'll need your username, password and full domain name to form the following command and add it to /data/etc/dyndns-update.sh:
curl -Ssf "http://<yourusername>:<yourpassword>@dynupdate.no-ip.com/nic/update?hostname=<yourdomain>"
To use your dynamic DNS domain name, simply point your browser to the given domain name, using http or https, depending on whether you have configured HTTPS or not.
For example, when using a DuckDNS with a subdomain called john-home and HTTPS enabled, your URL would be:
https://john-home.duckdns.org
You may also want to check out the thingOS wiki page on Dynamic DNS.