11 ms·

DynDNS ends free services

155 points by leeoniya 13y ago

TazeTSchnitzel 13y ago
I feel sorry for those people who have routers that only have built-in support for DynDNS. :(
- SoftwareMaven 13y ago
  That's where curl-based solutions are nice. Local cron job and done.
- zdw 13y ago
  I feel sorry for people whose routers aren't running OpenWRT, PFSense, or some other easily upgradable modern firmware that's free of backdoors.
  - tracker1 13y ago
    I'm using OpenWRT on my routerstation pro for my business connection, and an asus router with a TomatoUSB variant at home. Lots of options.
  - scuba7183 13y ago
    Unfortunately many (including mine) are not compatible
  - awalton 13y ago
    You know, because there can never be a backdoor or unknown security flaw in OpenWRT, PFSense or some other modern firmware.
    - na85 13y ago
      Hey, great snarky reply. Of course, in your haste to post a reddit-style sarcastic comment, you missed or glossed over the fact that free software such as OpenWRT or PFSense can be audited and patched by the public, and is not controlled by some corporation under undue influence by the NSA. Oops! Better luck next time!
      - awalton 13y ago
        Sure the software can, theoretically be audited. But 1) Requires someone actually auditing software. Which judging by the state of OpenSSL flaws, we're doing a shit-tier job at. and 2) Requires people patching the "internet of things" cringe - which we've also seen isn't happening. Furthermore, most of the devices are dependent on closed source drivers for wireless devices. And you're still just hoping the compromise isn't at the hardware level, because then you're truly up a creek. Hell, we don't have access to the baseband software in our cellphones or the SIM chip, which can happily take control of the application processor and do what it needs to do, yet we all clamor around the fact that Android is Open and thusly Auditable and that makes it automatically superior in every way. With enough eyes all bugs are shallow. But nobody's actually looking at the software, so bugs live on, and the big boogie man NSA can still be anywhere and everywhere. There are Eyes In Your Radio. They're not going anywhere.
  - dehrmann 13y ago
    Funny enough, I put a lot of work into a OpenWRT dyndns update script. I wonder what ever happened to that code.
  - archagon 13y ago
    Actually, I've been wondering lately, just how common are router compromises? I ask because I have a Synology unit that was infected with some pretty insidious malware just by being out on the open internet and having a slightly out-of-date OS version. Since it's now easily possible to scan the entire IPv4 address space, it makes me wonder if having out-of-date firmware would basically guarantee a hacked router these days.
    - damian2000 13y ago
      If it is common, its likely those doing it want it to remain a secret... so not sure its possible to get a good estimate.
  - ibmthrowaway218 13y ago
    It's not fear of backdoors that make me run a specific router. If I want free wifi access around the country (via BT Openzone) then I need to run BT's router (which includes the magic to run a separate managed public Wifi access point via BT Fon). It's annoying, but I can live with it (especially when they get around to upgrading my cabinet to FTTC and I get 60Mbps/20Mbps).
    - icebraining 13y ago
      I'm in the same situation, but my FON router sits behind my main router and isolated from my internal network. It still shares Internet access just fine :)
      - ibmthrowaway218 13y ago
        Are you on Infinity (FTTC)? I've heard various stories about people on FTTC getting slower speeds with anything other then the latest Homehub.
        icebraining 13y ago
        Oh, I'm not actually in the UK at all, I just meant I also need to keep a FON router connected. In that case, I assume the best option would be to put a decent router behind the Homehub (configuring the latter in bridge mode or similar) and then treating all traffic beyond the inner router as public.
- TheCloudlessSky 13y ago
  Yup - this is the situation I'm in. My ISP requires a specific modem/router combo. As an alternative, I'm going to switch to running a client on my machine.
- wvenable 13y ago
  Yeah, that's why I still used the service even when they went more annoying. I guess I'll need to finish the work I started on moving to an alternative solution.
skrowl 13y ago
For what it's worth, if you use namecheap.com as your DNS registrar then you have this type of service already for free. If you don't use namecheap, then you're doing it wrong ;)
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- lwh 13y ago
  On top of that they let you do it for free even if they aren't your registrar.
- breakall 13y ago
  Cool, glad you mentioned this! I've used namecheap for a while and never noticed this feature! This will save me the trouble of having an outside service for DDNS. For anyone else looking for this feature, log in to namecheap.com and click Manage Domains, click the domain you want to use DDNS with, then look for the Dynamic DNS link on the left menu under Miscellaneous.
- StavrosK 13y ago
  I decided to switch to Namecheap just for this feature. Their domain interface isn't fantastic (it's good enough), but it allows me to consolidate all my DNS management there, plus I don't have to use extra services to update my hostnames, AND ddclient supports their API directly.
- lftl 13y ago
  I know it's not strictly NameCheap's fault, but I moved all my DNS off of their servers after the recent DDOS had them down for hours.
  - film42 13y ago
    Same. At work we had a high traffic website using namecheap DNS and we had to transfer to Route 53 to avoid the chance of another DDoS.
- pseudosavant 13y ago
dewey 13y ago
Alternatives I switched to a while ago: - https://freedns.afraid.org/ https://freedns.afraid.org/ - https://ydns.eu/ https://ydns.eu/ What I like about these two is that you are able to update the IP by just curl'ing a certain URL, which works great in combination with a cronjob. Edit: It looks like OP submitted the tracking URL from the newsletter, his ID is probably going to stick out in their analytics.
- nbody 13y ago
  Personally I use https://www.noip.com https://www.noip.com
  - captaincrowbar 13y ago
    I switched from DynDNS to NoIP last year, but I'm probably going to switch again soon; NoIP's Mac auto-updater is broken and they don't seem to give a shit about fixing it.
- korzun 13y ago
  Another vote for https://freedns.afraid.org https://freedns.afraid.org, the guy who runs it is a great dude.
  - Brandon0 13y ago
    Exactly what he said.
    - korzun 13y ago
      I just wanted to back it up as one of their paying customers for the past 5 years who had plenty of interaction with the owner. Ironically your comment brings even less value to the table.
  - archagon 13y ago
    Plus, who doesn't want a subdomain at crabdance.com?
bits 13y ago
What DNS hosting providers can you recommend? Preferably with an API or other means to programmatically make changes to zones. Bonus points for SRV and TXT records support.
- coreymgilmore 13y ago
  if you just need DNS: cloudflare. if you want the dynamic IP redirection that DynDNS offers: check out NoIP. My favorite alternative.
- chrisfarms 13y ago
  We've been using dnsmadeeasy[1] for years. There's something dated about their interface/presentation, but the service has been rock solid and fast since day one. [1] http://www.dnsmadeeasy.com http://www.dnsmadeeasy.com
  - 8ig8 13y ago
    Came here to say the same. DNSMadeEasy doesn't feel _fancy_, but it has always worked great for us. Solid service. Highly recommended. Edit: Not that it matters much, but it was Textdrive's (née Joyant) recommendation back in '04 that got me to sign up. If anything, they've been around a while. https://web.archive.org/web/20060427025139/http://forum.textdrive.com/viewtopic.php?pid=12831 https://web.archive.org/web/20060427025139/http://forum.text...
  - lingben 13y ago
    +1 for dnsmadeeasy - they have fanatical support, they actually know dns inside and out
nodata 13y ago
http://en.gandi.net/ http://en.gandi.net/ offers free secondary dns with all domains you buy/renew through them.
- pipeep 13y ago
  Most hosting providers and domain sellers will provide this for free. CloudFlare also offers free DNS (which you can use with a patched version of ddclient). CloudFlare uses anycast, so it's fast, and as a DoS protection company, they tend to be more reliable than many of the other free options.
- darklajid 13y ago
  Given that I just left gandi after 2 days: Please be sure that you want to do business with them and that you've thoroughly checked their offerings. I'm kinda guilty on part two and can answer part one with a resounding 'no'. Their no bullshit claim didn't apply here, I cannot and won't recommend them.
  - eridius 13y ago
    Can you elaborate? I own 2 domains through them and have been nothing but happy with them so far.
    - StavrosK 13y ago
      I have two domains with them as well and can't complain, but their UI doesn't exactly shout "trustworthy".
  - oijaf888 13y ago
    What was your issue? I've contemplated consolidating all of my domains/certs with them and have no issues so far but maybe I'm missing something?
    - darklajid 13y ago
      See above - especially if you're not incorporated (Granted, on this board that's probably the minority)
pmh 13y ago
Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7546300 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7546300
cookiecaper 13y ago
dyndns has been getting progressively more hostile to free users for years. I thought it was ridiculous years ago when I switched to no-ip.org, I'm surprised that anyone has held on this long.
- thelad 13y ago
  Yea dunno why I held on so long with their annoying monthly or whatever 'click here to keep account active' email (with subsequent upsell) Moved to dtdns.com now - its free..
- emptybits 13y ago
  What hostility or ridiculousness did you see? I've been on Dyn forever, as a free user to keep a host entry for one remote, nonprofit dynamic-IP server. Starting exactly a year ago, once per month they sent me an email with a link I'd click to keep my free hostname(s) active. Seemed reasonable.
  - unreal37 13y ago
    I used to be on EasyDNS and they got acquired by DynDNS many years back. They really have been trying to kick off the free users for a long time. Anyone who's hung on til now is a survivor. They dropped from 5 free hostnames to 2, in 2010. And they have been enforcing this "log into your account monthly" since at least that time. Not 1 year, but at least 4 years or more. That's how I lost my free hostname - because I missed a month. Thanks Dyn!
    - Jailbird 13y ago
      Same issue here but I have set a reminder for every 2 weeks and luckily haven't missed. I have my parents' old router set to use this - and really have no good way out. I guess I give 'em money. Oh well.
    - NoPiece 13y ago
      They also removed a bunch of domains from their free tier a few years ago. This may help them drive some revenue in the short term, but long term I it is going to make customer acquisition a lot harder. I just switched over to no-ip.com...
ChrisArchitect 13y ago
recently, I think thru a show HN post on here, I discovered and started using http://hopper.pw http://hopper.pw. works great/some c00l commandline features etc
- jarus 13y ago
  I'm using it and it works very well. You can also add custom domains if your dns server supports the nsupdate API.
floatingatoll 13y ago
I started paying them a couple years ago for my DynDNS service, and have had no trouble in that time. I'm glad they chose to keep the service rather than shutting it down. And I'm especially glad to see them charging a small fee for a valuable service, rather than running it for free: https://blog.pinboard.in/2011/12/don_t_be_a_free_user/ https://blog.pinboard.in/2011/12/don_t_be_a_free_user/
- Stubb 13y ago
  Yeah, I thought about switching to a different provider for a few minutes but the time it would take is worth more than $20 to me. Plus, their free service has been working perfectly for years, so why switch now?
- bhaak 13y ago
  IMO they could have handled the transition to non-free better. But every time they took away some of the free stuff, you have seen popular outrage. They pissed off lots of people that could have been potential customers and I was one of them. Their lowest price plan is 25$ per year. If I only would want the most basic feature, that is having 1 or 2 dynamic ip addresses bound to a specific DNS entry (not even wildcard or email redirection), that is too much. I would have gladly paid 5$ for that even if only to get rid of the 30 day renewal routine. But when the time came for me to register my own domain, I didn't want DynDNS to do it. I've seen how they treated me when I was a non-paying customer.
  - pseudosavant 13y ago
    I totally agree with your sentiment. But I have to say a 'non-paying customer' isn't a customer at all, by definition. ;)
ah- 13y ago
Is anyone here hosting their own dyndns setup?
- dewey 13y ago
  Not yet, but this looks interesting: https://github.com/asmaps/hopper.pw https://github.com/asmaps/hopper.pw
- __david__ 13y ago
  Yeah, I wrote a little http endpoint that I access with curl in a cron job. The server updates my master DNS git repo and which then updates the data in Route 53. The DNS stuff is based on a Perl module I wrote called Net::DNS::Create [1]. It allows you to use a little DSL-ish language to create your DNS entries, then compile them into whatever DNS backend you want (Bind, TinyDNS, and Route53 are supported out of the box, and all have been used in production at some point). A quick example of what this might look like is here: https://github.com/caldwell/net-dns-create/blob/master/create.example https://github.com/caldwell/net-dns-create/blob/master/creat... [1] http://search.cpan.org/~david/Net-DNS-Create-v0.10.0/lib/Net/DNS/Create.pm http://search.cpan.org/~david/Net-DNS-Create-v0.10.0/lib/Net...
- darklajid 13y ago
  Yes, I did (and will do again). Previously I used bind/named for a subdomain, something like d.someshortdomainofmine.tld for a dynamic namespace and updated entries below with a cronjob calling nsupdate -k /path/to/a/key << _EOF_ server my.server.here zone d.someshortdomainofmine.tld update delete foo.d.someshortdomainofmine.tld update add foo.d.someshortdomainofmine.tld 300 AAAA ipv6here show send _EOF_ which worked just fine and took roughly 20min to get right, including the DNS entries. I'm currently moving to NSD and I'll implement something similar there.
- ing33k 13y ago
  not anymore
- rjgray 13y ago
  For anyone that happens to use PointDNS DNS hosting (it's free for a single domain I believe), I've written a small script to be called from cron. https://github.com/vortura/point-dyndns https://github.com/vortura/point-dyndns
chrissnell 13y ago
Rackspace offers DNS with all cloud accounts and doesn't charge for it. As far as I know, you can sign up for a cloud account and not actually purchase any services, though I would probably put some files in Cloud Files so you're at least paying them something to keep the account around. You can update your records via their API or via their control panel and there are no per-change or per-domain fees. You're getting professionally-run DNS servers, distributed with anycast.
- iancarroll 13y ago
  Route 53 is also really cheap if you're an AWS kind of guy/gal for 50 cents a domain. The usage charges are beyond low (think 1 cent) for smaller sites.
  - funkyy 13y ago
    Route 53 seems like a way to go with their GeoDNS ability and bunch of cool other features. To bad Dyn.com goes all paid though...
  - icoloma 13y ago
    Has anyone compared Route53 with the new Google Cloud DNS? https://developers.google.com/cloud-dns/ https://developers.google.com/cloud-dns/ I'm interested in differences feature-wise.
    - donavanm 13y ago
      I havent seen a point by point comparison. Feature set, and even the API, are basically identical for now.
- msisk6 13y ago
  This is true. Although we do appreciate folks using other Rackspace services along with the free DNS. ;)
- damian2000 13y ago
  Linode too offers DNS with their accounts, which i've used and been happy with ... https://library.linode.com/dns-manager https://library.linode.com/dns-manager They also offer API access (haven't used that yet) https://www.linode.com/api/dns https://www.linode.com/api/dns
larrys 13y ago
Previous thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7546300 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7546300
dale386 13y ago
I have a feeling that we're going to start seeing a lot of this post LogMeIn's cancellation of free services.
bbunix 13y ago
Inevitable... moved off DynDNS earlier this year in favor of Amazon's Route53. DNS bills went down 99%... and Amazon has been great.
- tracker1 13y ago
  What have your bills looked like, if you don't mind my asking? I've been running a VM server on a business cable connection, but thinking on getting rid of that in favor of a few cloud/hosted systems, and virtual DNS.
specialp 13y ago
Hurricane electric offers free dynDNS, free DNS, and also free IPv6 tunneling. https://dns.he.net/ https://dns.he.net/ You can even set up an IPv6 tunnel for a dynamic IP and have it update dynamically.
- greyskull 13y ago
  +1 to this. I've only touched very basic usage, but it was easy. And it's HE... big name and comes with reliability.
  - MichaelGG 13y ago
    >And it's HE... big name and comes with reliability Our experience is the opposite. LA to Denver and at least once a week Nagios goes batshit because packetloss pops up to 8% on and off for hours. Partly this is because our unfortunate choice of ISP, IPTP, doesn't understand how BGP works and localprefs HE over everything. But consensus seems to be that they're just overloaded. I suppose selling for a third or less of other ISPs tends to increase network demand.
brianobush 13y ago
I have used them for years under their free model. I signed up for 2 years instantly after receiving an email regarding this. In my mind, they have earned it: A great service and free for all these years. I think this is a great way to move from free to paid services.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
Osiris 13y ago
I have been using their free service for a very long time, so this is a big disappointing. However, I recently bought a new ASUS router that includes an ASUS dynamic DNS service built in (asuscomm.com) that works really well. There's an app that allows me to wake up my computers remotely via my Android phone, and I can VPN into my network to do SSH/Remote Desktop. The nice thing about DynDNS is that it was widely supported by routers, including DD-WRT and Tomato.
bitJericho 13y ago
Might I recommend gandi and also http://code.google.com/p/gandi-automatic-dns/ http://code.google.com/p/gandi-automatic-dns/
neves 13y ago
A little known fact: If you have a Brazilian domain, you have free DNS at Registro.br, the official country register. I stopped to use dyndns since they started doing it some years ago. The interface is a lot better, and you will have quicker responses for your Brazilian visitors.
tedchs 13y ago
Google now offers Cloud DNS, conceptually similar to Amazon Route53. Has a pretty nice CLI and REST API, and serves using Anycast. https://developers.google.com/cloud-dns/ https://developers.google.com/cloud-dns/
mjs7231 13y ago
I always ran a homebrew dynamic dns service on my domains from whatever VPS provider I used at the time. Basically create a new A record on your domain (ex: home.example.com), then run one of these scripts periodically on your home machine to keep that A record updated. Here are are the two that are still relevant: Digital Ocean: http://pushingkarma.com/notebook/dynamic-dns-your-home-pc-using-digitaloceans-api/ http://pushingkarma.com/notebook/dynamic-dns-your-home-pc-us... Linode: http://pushingkarma.com/notebook/setup-dynamic-dns-using-linode/ http://pushingkarma.com/notebook/setup-dynamic-dns-using-lin...
goombastic 13y ago
The real problem is routers have hardwired dyndns settings; in many cases with no other options.
- solnyshok 13y ago
  Actually, there are programs you can install on a pc behind your router, that will perform the same function, i.e. Pinging some dyndns provider other than router's builtin one. i think I used one by namecheap in windows exe form.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
wildmXranat 13y ago
great posts here. marking it for later
- theGimp 13y ago
  Please use something like Pinboard, Pocket, Bitly, or Instapaper. You put everything in one list, and the comment section stays on point :) Links: https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/ https://bitly.com/ https://bitly.com/ http://getpocket.com/ http://getpocket.com/ https://www.instapaper.com/ https://www.instapaper.com/
- icebraining 13y ago
  If you just upvote it, it'll appear in /saved, no need to comment :) https://news.ycombinator.com/saved?id=[nickname] https://news.ycombinator.com/saved?id=[nickname]
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
minutetominute 13y ago
You can pretty much do the same thing with an OpenVPN server anyways.
godDLL 13y ago
I've switched to using http://entrydns.net http://entrydns.net some time back. Worked out good so far.
ing33k 13y ago
https://dns.he.net/ https://dns.he.net/ is pretty good ( run by Hurricane Electric )
shinratdr 13y ago
Switched to No-IP, took a couple minutes. No big deal, I've never really liked DynDNS anyways, they were far to aggressive in trying to force upgrades.
aktau 13y ago
I haven't found anything that beats the ease of use of LuaDNS [1] though. Edit a simple lua script, git push and done! [1] http://www.luadns.com/ http://www.luadns.com/

155 points by leeoniya 13y ago

TazeTSchnitzel 13y ago

I feel sorry for those people who have routers that only have built-in support for DynDNS. :(

SoftwareMaven 13y ago
That's where curl-based solutions are nice. Local cron job and done.
zdw 13y ago
I feel sorry for people whose routers aren't running OpenWRT, PFSense, or some other easily upgradable modern firmware that's free of backdoors.
- tracker1 13y ago
  I'm using OpenWRT on my routerstation pro for my business connection, and an asus router with a TomatoUSB variant at home. Lots of options.
- scuba7183 13y ago
  Unfortunately many (including mine) are not compatible
- awalton 13y ago
  You know, because there can never be a backdoor or unknown security flaw in OpenWRT, PFSense or some other modern firmware.
  - na85 13y ago
    Hey, great snarky reply. Of course, in your haste to post a reddit-style sarcastic comment, you missed or glossed over the fact that free software such as OpenWRT or PFSense can be audited and patched by the public, and is not controlled by some corporation under undue influence by the NSA. Oops! Better luck next time!
    - awalton 13y ago
      Sure the software can, theoretically be audited. But 1) Requires someone actually auditing software. Which judging by the state of OpenSSL flaws, we're doing a shit-tier job at. and 2) Requires people patching the "internet of things" cringe - which we've also seen isn't happening. Furthermore, most of the devices are dependent on closed source drivers for wireless devices. And you're still just hoping the compromise isn't at the hardware level, because then you're truly up a creek. Hell, we don't have access to the baseband software in our cellphones or the SIM chip, which can happily take control of the application processor and do what it needs to do, yet we all clamor around the fact that Android is Open and thusly Auditable and that makes it automatically superior in every way. With enough eyes all bugs are shallow. But nobody's actually looking at the software, so bugs live on, and the big boogie man NSA can still be anywhere and everywhere. There are Eyes In Your Radio. They're not going anywhere.
- dehrmann 13y ago
  Funny enough, I put a lot of work into a OpenWRT dyndns update script. I wonder what ever happened to that code.
- archagon 13y ago
  Actually, I've been wondering lately, just how common are router compromises? I ask because I have a Synology unit that was infected with some pretty insidious malware just by being out on the open internet and having a slightly out-of-date OS version. Since it's now easily possible to scan the entire IPv4 address space, it makes me wonder if having out-of-date firmware would basically guarantee a hacked router these days.
  - damian2000 13y ago
    If it is common, its likely those doing it want it to remain a secret... so not sure its possible to get a good estimate.
- ibmthrowaway218 13y ago
  It's not fear of backdoors that make me run a specific router. If I want free wifi access around the country (via BT Openzone) then I need to run BT's router (which includes the magic to run a separate managed public Wifi access point via BT Fon). It's annoying, but I can live with it (especially when they get around to upgrading my cabinet to FTTC and I get 60Mbps/20Mbps).
  - icebraining 13y ago
    I'm in the same situation, but my FON router sits behind my main router and isolated from my internal network. It still shares Internet access just fine :)
    - ibmthrowaway218 13y ago
      Are you on Infinity (FTTC)? I've heard various stories about people on FTTC getting slower speeds with anything other then the latest Homehub.
      - icebraining 13y ago
        Oh, I'm not actually in the UK at all, I just meant I also need to keep a FON router connected. In that case, I assume the best option would be to put a decent router behind the Homehub (configuring the latter in bridge mode or similar) and then treating all traffic beyond the inner router as public.
TheCloudlessSky 13y ago
Yup - this is the situation I'm in. My ISP requires a specific modem/router combo. As an alternative, I'm going to switch to running a client on my machine.
wvenable 13y ago
Yeah, that's why I still used the service even when they went more annoying. I guess I'll need to finish the work I started on moving to an alternative solution.

skrowl 13y ago

For what it's worth, if you use namecheap.com as your DNS registrar then you have this type of service already for free. If you don't use namecheap, then you're doing it wrong ;)

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
lwh 13y ago
On top of that they let you do it for free even if they aren't your registrar.
breakall 13y ago
Cool, glad you mentioned this! I've used namecheap for a while and never noticed this feature! This will save me the trouble of having an outside service for DDNS. For anyone else looking for this feature, log in to namecheap.com and click Manage Domains, click the domain you want to use DDNS with, then look for the Dynamic DNS link on the left menu under Miscellaneous.
StavrosK 13y ago
I decided to switch to Namecheap just for this feature. Their domain interface isn't fantastic (it's good enough), but it allows me to consolidate all my DNS management there, plus I don't have to use extra services to update my hostnames, AND ddclient supports their API directly.
lftl 13y ago
I know it's not strictly NameCheap's fault, but I moved all my DNS off of their servers after the recent DDOS had them down for hours.
- film42 13y ago
  Same. At work we had a high traffic website using namecheap DNS and we had to transfer to Route 53 to avoid the chance of another DDoS.
pseudosavant 13y ago

dewey 13y ago

Alternatives I switched to a while ago: - https://freedns.afraid.org/ https://freedns.afraid.org/ - https://ydns.eu/ https://ydns.eu/ What I like about these two is that you are able to update the IP by just curl'ing a certain URL, which works great in combination with a cronjob. Edit: It looks like OP submitted the tracking URL from the newsletter, his ID is probably going to stick out in their analytics.

nbody 13y ago
Personally I use https://www.noip.com https://www.noip.com
- captaincrowbar 13y ago
  I switched from DynDNS to NoIP last year, but I'm probably going to switch again soon; NoIP's Mac auto-updater is broken and they don't seem to give a shit about fixing it.
korzun 13y ago
Another vote for https://freedns.afraid.org https://freedns.afraid.org, the guy who runs it is a great dude.
- Brandon0 13y ago
  Exactly what he said.
  - korzun 13y ago
    I just wanted to back it up as one of their paying customers for the past 5 years who had plenty of interaction with the owner. Ironically your comment brings even less value to the table.
- archagon 13y ago
  Plus, who doesn't want a subdomain at crabdance.com?

bits 13y ago

What DNS hosting providers can you recommend? Preferably with an API or other means to programmatically make changes to zones. Bonus points for SRV and TXT records support.

coreymgilmore 13y ago
if you just need DNS: cloudflare. if you want the dynamic IP redirection that DynDNS offers: check out NoIP. My favorite alternative.
chrisfarms 13y ago
We've been using dnsmadeeasy[1] for years. There's something dated about their interface/presentation, but the service has been rock solid and fast since day one. [1] http://www.dnsmadeeasy.com http://www.dnsmadeeasy.com
- 8ig8 13y ago
  Came here to say the same. DNSMadeEasy doesn't feel _fancy_, but it has always worked great for us. Solid service. Highly recommended. Edit: Not that it matters much, but it was Textdrive's (née Joyant) recommendation back in '04 that got me to sign up. If anything, they've been around a while. https://web.archive.org/web/20060427025139/http://forum.textdrive.com/viewtopic.php?pid=12831 https://web.archive.org/web/20060427025139/http://forum.text...
- lingben 13y ago
  +1 for dnsmadeeasy - they have fanatical support, they actually know dns inside and out

nodata 13y ago

http://en.gandi.net/ http://en.gandi.net/ offers free secondary dns with all domains you buy/renew through them.

pipeep 13y ago
Most hosting providers and domain sellers will provide this for free. CloudFlare also offers free DNS (which you can use with a patched version of ddclient). CloudFlare uses anycast, so it's fast, and as a DoS protection company, they tend to be more reliable than many of the other free options.
darklajid 13y ago
Given that I just left gandi after 2 days: Please be sure that you want to do business with them and that you've thoroughly checked their offerings. I'm kinda guilty on part two and can answer part one with a resounding 'no'. Their no bullshit claim didn't apply here, I cannot and won't recommend them.
- eridius 13y ago
  Can you elaborate? I own 2 domains through them and have been nothing but happy with them so far.
  - StavrosK 13y ago
    I have two domains with them as well and can't complain, but their UI doesn't exactly shout "trustworthy".
- oijaf888 13y ago
  What was your issue? I've contemplated consolidating all of my domains/certs with them and have no issues so far but maybe I'm missing something?
  - darklajid 13y ago
    See above - especially if you're not incorporated (Granted, on this board that's probably the minority)

pmh 13y ago

Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7546300 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7546300

cookiecaper 13y ago

dyndns has been getting progressively more hostile to free users for years. I thought it was ridiculous years ago when I switched to no-ip.org, I'm surprised that anyone has held on this long.

thelad 13y ago
Yea dunno why I held on so long with their annoying monthly or whatever 'click here to keep account active' email (with subsequent upsell) Moved to dtdns.com now - its free..
emptybits 13y ago
What hostility or ridiculousness did you see? I've been on Dyn forever, as a free user to keep a host entry for one remote, nonprofit dynamic-IP server. Starting exactly a year ago, once per month they sent me an email with a link I'd click to keep my free hostname(s) active. Seemed reasonable.
- unreal37 13y ago
  I used to be on EasyDNS and they got acquired by DynDNS many years back. They really have been trying to kick off the free users for a long time. Anyone who's hung on til now is a survivor. They dropped from 5 free hostnames to 2, in 2010. And they have been enforcing this "log into your account monthly" since at least that time. Not 1 year, but at least 4 years or more. That's how I lost my free hostname - because I missed a month. Thanks Dyn!
  - Jailbird 13y ago
    Same issue here but I have set a reminder for every 2 weeks and luckily haven't missed. I have my parents' old router set to use this - and really have no good way out. I guess I give 'em money. Oh well.
  - NoPiece 13y ago
    They also removed a bunch of domains from their free tier a few years ago. This may help them drive some revenue in the short term, but long term I it is going to make customer acquisition a lot harder. I just switched over to no-ip.com...

ChrisArchitect 13y ago

recently, I think thru a show HN post on here, I discovered and started using http://hopper.pw http://hopper.pw. works great/some c00l commandline features etc

jarus 13y ago
I'm using it and it works very well. You can also add custom domains if your dns server supports the nsupdate API.

floatingatoll 13y ago

I started paying them a couple years ago for my DynDNS service, and have had no trouble in that time. I'm glad they chose to keep the service rather than shutting it down. And I'm especially glad to see them charging a small fee for a valuable service, rather than running it for free: https://blog.pinboard.in/2011/12/don_t_be_a_free_user/ https://blog.pinboard.in/2011/12/don_t_be_a_free_user/

Stubb 13y ago
Yeah, I thought about switching to a different provider for a few minutes but the time it would take is worth more than $20 to me. Plus, their free service has been working perfectly for years, so why switch now?
bhaak 13y ago
IMO they could have handled the transition to non-free better. But every time they took away some of the free stuff, you have seen popular outrage. They pissed off lots of people that could have been potential customers and I was one of them. Their lowest price plan is 25$ per year. If I only would want the most basic feature, that is having 1 or 2 dynamic ip addresses bound to a specific DNS entry (not even wildcard or email redirection), that is too much. I would have gladly paid 5$ for that even if only to get rid of the 30 day renewal routine. But when the time came for me to register my own domain, I didn't want DynDNS to do it. I've seen how they treated me when I was a non-paying customer.
- pseudosavant 13y ago
  I totally agree with your sentiment. But I have to say a 'non-paying customer' isn't a customer at all, by definition. ;)

ah- 13y ago

Is anyone here hosting their own dyndns setup?

dewey 13y ago
Not yet, but this looks interesting: https://github.com/asmaps/hopper.pw https://github.com/asmaps/hopper.pw
__david__ 13y ago
Yeah, I wrote a little http endpoint that I access with curl in a cron job. The server updates my master DNS git repo and which then updates the data in Route 53. The DNS stuff is based on a Perl module I wrote called Net::DNS::Create [1]. It allows you to use a little DSL-ish language to create your DNS entries, then compile them into whatever DNS backend you want (Bind, TinyDNS, and Route53 are supported out of the box, and all have been used in production at some point). A quick example of what this might look like is here: https://github.com/caldwell/net-dns-create/blob/master/create.example https://github.com/caldwell/net-dns-create/blob/master/creat... [1] http://search.cpan.org/~david/Net-DNS-Create-v0.10.0/lib/Net/DNS/Create.pm http://search.cpan.org/~david/Net-DNS-Create-v0.10.0/lib/Net...
darklajid 13y ago
Yes, I did (and will do again). Previously I used bind/named for a subdomain, something like d.someshortdomainofmine.tld for a dynamic namespace and updated entries below with a cronjob calling nsupdate -k /path/to/a/key << _EOF_ server my.server.here zone d.someshortdomainofmine.tld update delete foo.d.someshortdomainofmine.tld update add foo.d.someshortdomainofmine.tld 300 AAAA ipv6here show send _EOF_ which worked just fine and took roughly 20min to get right, including the DNS entries. I'm currently moving to NSD and I'll implement something similar there.
ing33k 13y ago
not anymore
rjgray 13y ago
For anyone that happens to use PointDNS DNS hosting (it's free for a single domain I believe), I've written a small script to be called from cron. https://github.com/vortura/point-dyndns https://github.com/vortura/point-dyndns

chrissnell 13y ago

Rackspace offers DNS with all cloud accounts and doesn't charge for it. As far as I know, you can sign up for a cloud account and not actually purchase any services, though I would probably put some files in Cloud Files so you're at least paying them something to keep the account around. You can update your records via their API or via their control panel and there are no per-change or per-domain fees. You're getting professionally-run DNS servers, distributed with anycast.

iancarroll 13y ago
Route 53 is also really cheap if you're an AWS kind of guy/gal for 50 cents a domain. The usage charges are beyond low (think 1 cent) for smaller sites.
- funkyy 13y ago
  Route 53 seems like a way to go with their GeoDNS ability and bunch of cool other features. To bad Dyn.com goes all paid though...
- icoloma 13y ago
  Has anyone compared Route53 with the new Google Cloud DNS? https://developers.google.com/cloud-dns/ https://developers.google.com/cloud-dns/ I'm interested in differences feature-wise.
  - donavanm 13y ago
    I havent seen a point by point comparison. Feature set, and even the API, are basically identical for now.
msisk6 13y ago
This is true. Although we do appreciate folks using other Rackspace services along with the free DNS. ;)
damian2000 13y ago
Linode too offers DNS with their accounts, which i've used and been happy with ... https://library.linode.com/dns-manager https://library.linode.com/dns-manager They also offer API access (haven't used that yet) https://www.linode.com/api/dns https://www.linode.com/api/dns

larrys 13y ago

Previous thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7546300 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7546300

dale386 13y ago

I have a feeling that we're going to start seeing a lot of this post LogMeIn's cancellation of free services.

bbunix 13y ago

Inevitable... moved off DynDNS earlier this year in favor of Amazon's Route53. DNS bills went down 99%... and Amazon has been great.

tracker1 13y ago
What have your bills looked like, if you don't mind my asking? I've been running a VM server on a business cable connection, but thinking on getting rid of that in favor of a few cloud/hosted systems, and virtual DNS.

specialp 13y ago

Hurricane electric offers free dynDNS, free DNS, and also free IPv6 tunneling. https://dns.he.net/ https://dns.he.net/ You can even set up an IPv6 tunnel for a dynamic IP and have it update dynamically.

greyskull 13y ago
+1 to this. I've only touched very basic usage, but it was easy. And it's HE... big name and comes with reliability.
- MichaelGG 13y ago
  >And it's HE... big name and comes with reliability Our experience is the opposite. LA to Denver and at least once a week Nagios goes batshit because packetloss pops up to 8% on and off for hours. Partly this is because our unfortunate choice of ISP, IPTP, doesn't understand how BGP works and localprefs HE over everything. But consensus seems to be that they're just overloaded. I suppose selling for a third or less of other ISPs tends to increase network demand.

brianobush 13y ago

I have used them for years under their free model. I signed up for 2 years instantly after receiving an email regarding this. In my mind, they have earned it: A great service and free for all these years. I think this is a great way to move from free to paid services.

deleted 13y ago
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Osiris 13y ago

I have been using their free service for a very long time, so this is a big disappointing. However, I recently bought a new ASUS router that includes an ASUS dynamic DNS service built in (asuscomm.com) that works really well. There's an app that allows me to wake up my computers remotely via my Android phone, and I can VPN into my network to do SSH/Remote Desktop. The nice thing about DynDNS is that it was widely supported by routers, including DD-WRT and Tomato.

bitJericho 13y ago

Might I recommend gandi and also http://code.google.com/p/gandi-automatic-dns/ http://code.google.com/p/gandi-automatic-dns/

neves 13y ago

A little known fact: If you have a Brazilian domain, you have free DNS at Registro.br, the official country register. I stopped to use dyndns since they started doing it some years ago. The interface is a lot better, and you will have quicker responses for your Brazilian visitors.

tedchs 13y ago

Google now offers Cloud DNS, conceptually similar to Amazon Route53. Has a pretty nice CLI and REST API, and serves using Anycast. https://developers.google.com/cloud-dns/ https://developers.google.com/cloud-dns/

mjs7231 13y ago

I always ran a homebrew dynamic dns service on my domains from whatever VPS provider I used at the time. Basically create a new A record on your domain (ex: home.example.com), then run one of these scripts periodically on your home machine to keep that A record updated. Here are are the two that are still relevant: Digital Ocean: http://pushingkarma.com/notebook/dynamic-dns-your-home-pc-using-digitaloceans-api/ http://pushingkarma.com/notebook/dynamic-dns-your-home-pc-us... Linode: http://pushingkarma.com/notebook/setup-dynamic-dns-using-linode/ http://pushingkarma.com/notebook/setup-dynamic-dns-using-lin...

goombastic 13y ago

The real problem is routers have hardwired dyndns settings; in many cases with no other options.

solnyshok 13y ago
Actually, there are programs you can install on a pc behind your router, that will perform the same function, i.e. Pinging some dyndns provider other than router's builtin one. i think I used one by namecheap in windows exe form.

deleted 13y ago

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wildmXranat 13y ago

great posts here. marking it for later

theGimp 13y ago
Please use something like Pinboard, Pocket, Bitly, or Instapaper. You put everything in one list, and the comment section stays on point :) Links: https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/ https://bitly.com/ https://bitly.com/ http://getpocket.com/ http://getpocket.com/ https://www.instapaper.com/ https://www.instapaper.com/
icebraining 13y ago
If you just upvote it, it'll appear in /saved, no need to comment :) https://news.ycombinator.com/saved?id=[nickname] https://news.ycombinator.com/saved?id=[nickname]

deleted 13y ago

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minutetominute 13y ago

You can pretty much do the same thing with an OpenVPN server anyways.

godDLL 13y ago

I've switched to using http://entrydns.net http://entrydns.net some time back. Worked out good so far.

ing33k 13y ago

https://dns.he.net/ https://dns.he.net/ is pretty good ( run by Hurricane Electric )

shinratdr 13y ago

Switched to No-IP, took a couple minutes. No big deal, I've never really liked DynDNS anyways, they were far to aggressive in trying to force upgrades.

aktau 13y ago

I haven't found anything that beats the ease of use of LuaDNS [1] though. Edit a simple lua script, git push and done! [1] http://www.luadns.com/ http://www.luadns.com/