I posted this in another thread, but I need an answer.

I have a dynamic IP address at home and a domain name registered already. Now what options do I have for updating my DNS>?

I know I can use dynDNS and get like josh.dynDNS.com or whatever, but what if I want to use my existing domain name ? dynDNS would then have to interact with my existing DNS server yes?

I have nfi tia

if you have an existing domain name just setup a CNAME/alias entry to point to the dyndns hostname.

yourbox.atyourdomain.com. A CNAME yourbox.dyndns.org.

done.

last edited by ara at 17:23:14 08/Jul/07

You can also pay for the service which is pretty cheap and handy

You can also pay for the service which is pretty cheap and handy

Happy to do this, but I dont understand how its gonna work when dynDNS and my Hosting's DNS are two different crews ?

Ta ara, that sounds good

except ara has jim'd it, should be: IN CNAME

what exactly are you trying to do? make your dyndns name point to your domain name? if so there's an "offline" option in dyndns that I think you just enter the ip/name of the server you want dyndns to point to when your home box is turned off.

Firstly, you mentioned that you have a dynamic IP at home, followed by the declaration that you have your own domain. I therefore assume that you want to host from home.

My recommendation is to go to Zone Edit and create an account. Once you have created your account, then create a zone for your domain. Zoneedit will issue you with 2 name servers, which you can then add to your domain settings at the registrar that manages your domain. It usually takes 24 hours for your registrars domain settings to propogate, but once that happens, all calls to your domain are handled by Zoneedit. Now, you can add the IP address of where your site is hosted, whether it is from home or elsewhere. If you have a dynamic IP at home it will still do the job, but depending on the service provider, some providers issue new IP addresses if the modem is reset. Therefore, if you plan on hosting at home, then it might pay to get a static IP address if your provider falls into this category.

The good thing about Zoneedit, is that changes to Zoneedit can occur within minutes, or may take hours. Either way, it is quicker than waiting the 24 hours for your registrar to make changes.

In Zoneedit, you can also setup your domain for web forwarding to go to another domain.....such as www.yourdomain.com could be setup to forward to www.yourname.myspace.com etc. You can also use Zoneedit to create email forwards, so you can start creating emails such as yourname@yourdomain.com and get them to forward to any mailbox you want...such as hotmail yahoo bigpond mailboxes etc. Anyway, have a look at it, and see if it will suit your needs. If you have any probs, or want further assistance, then let me know.

FB

Awesome FB. I will explain the situation fully.

Yes - I want to host from home. The modem I am using has a DMZ option that assigns a WAN IP to the PC (Server) attached to it. Everytime the PC is reset though, it grabs a new IP - through the modem - bizarro.

I have contacts at my hosting provider, but DNS changes daily is not something I want to be doing.

From my understanding, dynDNS has a little client thing that sits on the Windows Box, and monitors your IP address every x amount of time, and updates the DNS server there directly. Now ideally, I would like josh.net.au updated, but if its only possible to redirect to some dynDNS or Zoneedit Domain then I guess thats just the way I will have to do it.

DynDNS updater clients. You can get one for windows (which I'm using right now) and some routers have support for dyndns built in. I use the windows one because it forces an update every 28 days to prevent dyndns deleting inactive accounts, whereas my router only updates if my IP changes and seeing how my IP was rather static (it was assigned by DHCP but rarely ever changed) my router never updated my dyndns account & every month I'd get an email telling me my account was about to be suspended for being inactive.

I think paid-for accounts don't suffer the inactivity emails but can't confirm since mine's just a free account.


edit: also unless you need access to every port on your PC, putting it in the DMZ might be a bad idea. What that does is basically forward EVERY port to your computer. You're probably better off just forwarding port 80 if its a web server and port 21 if it's an FTP server.


last edited by whoop at 19:15:02 08/Jul/07

Ya cool. So if I wanted to get them to change my real domain name, I would have to hand over my DNS management to them right? Involving transfers of Domain, Money, f***ing around etc, ya ?

Prob just best to redirect me.com-->me.dyndns.com you think ? (& Run the client?)

^Oh and I am running a full blown server, VPN RPC HTTP FTP SSH Exchange, etc, with a phat firewall so I am happy for it to be demil

pay your ISP for a static IP and then just enter that in your josh.com domain? (or whatever the domain is)

Ok, servers at home are no problems. I assign a static IP address to the server (I have two network cards, both with static IP's). Now, port 80 is the port that handles all http requests, therefore, through the modem I forward all incoming port 80 requests to one of the servers IP addresses. You can configure your modem and server pair to handle all of the ports required for the services configured on you server (such as 25 for incoming mail etc). If your host has blocked port 25, then you can get some assistance with software such as dynDNS that can setup mail relays so you can pull mail through other ports.

However, the modem is the gateway to the outside world, and it will have its own IP address. This is the IP address that you use in Zoneedit, and is the one that I was referring to. What you do with the requests once they hit your modem is up to you, but you can have separate servers for http, another for mail etc....just give em different IP's and configure incoming requests to go to whatever server you want. You don't need to continually change your servers IP address, unless you are expecting security issues. I have servers running all the time, and I only change them when I see some strange activity. If you require extra security, then I would recommend using an established host and leave the headaches to them.

Have fun mate......nothing like having your own server to play with :)

FB

I have servers running all the time, and I only change them when I see some strange activity. If you require extra security, then I would recommend using an established host and leave the headaches to them.

pfft I've had apache on my home computer now for over 5 years, way back when that whole telstra + NIMDA virus thing was going around infecting everyone's IIS installs I had IIS installed & open to the world and never got infected. If you see strange activity and change your IP address you can't be too confident in the security of your servers and probably shouldn't be running one, these are the kinds of people who only aid DDoS attackers. I'm no expert but mine seems pretty hardened against script kiddy attacks. I've seen heaps of overflow exploits & the like in my logs with no ill effects to apache.

Just do what Ara says.

pfft I've had apache on my home computer now for over 5 years, way back when that whole telstra + NIMDA virus thing was going around infecting everyone's IIS installs I had IIS installed & open to the world and never got infected.

You and heaps of other people....now, apart from opening your mouth for the sake of opening your mouth...what is your point?

If you see strange activity and change your IP address you can't be too confident in the security of your servers and probably shouldn't be running one

How I choose to run my own personal servers, and handle my own security concerns are my own business.....I don't run a commercial server from home you dipstick, it is a test platform and backup only. However, I have had the experience of being on the end of two nasty attacks, which only ended once I dropped my static IP from my ISP. In the previous posts, when I say that I change my IP if I see strange activity, I am referring to the IP address I assign to my network card. My family shares the same network at home, and you can bet your bottom dollar that one of them will manage to drag home some sort of nasty every now and then. Therefore, apart from showing your bad manners, what was the purpose of your post?

From the mannerism that you have depicted in your post, I would have to conclude that, at my expense, you were trying to show everybody that you had hair on your balls. If this is the case, then:

Whoop - de - fark'n - Do :) Get a life, grow a brain, and learn to recognise advice instead of seeing a point that needs to be beaten.

RAGE