:: Intrepid Spaniel ::

If you have a dynamic web server and want to run a server or remote desktop at home and be able to access it with an ip address, you can use zoneedit.com for free dynamic DNS service.

First, you need to sign up for and account on zoneedit.com, and configure your domain registrar to use zoneedit for DNS. This varies by provider, so I won’t try to explain it here. zoneedit has pretty good FAQs and help if you get lost.

Using one of numerous software clients available, it will scan for changes to your IP address and update your DNS settings with zonedit. This is similar to dyndns.org, but using dyndns it only works with a subdomain like ben.homelinux.net and not the domain you purchased unless you pay $25 for their custom DNS service. Since I have a Linux server at home, I used ddclient, but I like the slimmed down configuration file available here. There are clients for windows, mac, and various routers as well.

Configuration on a redhat based system goes like this. It’s pretty easy to modify for another system, and it might be a good starting place.

wget http://www.dyndns.com/download/clients/unix/ddclient.tar.gz
tar zxvf ddclient.tar.gz
cd client-ddclient-3.7.1
(or current version)
su -
(enter root password)
cp ddclient /usr/sbin
mkdir /etc/ddclient
cp sample-etc_ddclient.conf /etc/ddclient/ddclient.conf
more README
(just to see what’s there, and read about other options, if you want)
cp sample-etc_rc.d_init.d_ddclient.redhat /etc/rc.d/init.d/ddclient
/sbin/chkconfig –add ddclient
(sets it to start up on system startup)
pico /etc/ddclient/ddclient.conf

(or use gedit, kate, vi, nano, emacs or whatever text editor you want)
(uncomment or edit these lines)
use=fw, fw=192.168.1.254/status.htm, fw-skip='IP Address' # found after IP Address
(change this so fw= is the address status page on your router or firewall, and fw-skip contains text that your IP address is found after, you'll have to play around with this if you are using a different method of getting your IP)
(and then uncomment and replace with your information)
##
## ZoneEdit (zoneedit.com)
##
server=www.zoneedit.com, \
protocol=zoneedit1, \
login=zoneeditusername, \
password=zoneeditpassword \
topleveldomain.net,othertld.com


(back to commands)

mkdir /var/cache/ddclient
touch /var/cache/ddclient/ddclient.cache
/etc/rc.d/init.d/ddclient start
tail -f /var/log/messages
(look for status or errors and correct and restart)

zonedit’s documentation page for dynamic addresses