There’s an opportunity for software developers of Dynamic DNS clients. We’d like to help promote your software, as soon as it meets these two requirements:
- Support Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) for HTTPS updates
- Allow the user to change the Dynamic DNS update URL to the OpenDNS update URL
If your software supports those two requirements, we’re quite happy to list it as an option for OpenDNS customers and help you get more users for your software, whether it’s commercial, freeware, or anywhere in between.
Background
With last week’s introduction of OpenDNS Accounts, OpenDNS supports DNS preferences and statistics for users with dynamic IP addresses through Dynamic DNS. There are many, many individuals with dynamic IP addresses, so we know this step opens up our service dramatically.
Dynamic DNS (DDNS) requires running client software on your computer, as described in the DDNS instructions. Right now, OpenDNS offers working client software that’s only for the technically savvy. The software is a modification of the open-source command line client inadyn by OpenDNS to support Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), if you’re curious.
We’re not client software developers. The only reason we released anything was because the clients we found either did not support SSL or would not let you (the customer) change the DDNS update URL to the OpenDNS update URL, as listed on the OpenDNS DDNS instructions page.
The good news? There is already a vibrant ecosystem of DDNS client software. However, we didn’t find anything that met both of our requirements just yet. The closest one was DynSite, a Windows client which supports SSL, but doesn’t support OpenDNS’s update URL.
If we missed a working candidate, let us know!
Next steps
If you’re a developer of DDNS client software, please get in touch. We’d like to help or answer questions as best we can.
If you’re already using DDNS client software and would like to use the same software for managing your OpenDNS Account (makes sense to me!), then please ask the developer (politely) if adding SSL support and OpenDNS update URL support (or just allowing update URL choice) is on their radar.
Reminder
You can use OpenDNS without an account if speedy, reliable DNS with the default preferences is what you need.
JDPower
I really hope you can find a user friendly DDNS program for this. It would even be good if in the short term you could get an easy to follow guide on setting up the current inadyn software as a service. The instructions on this site for it don’t explain how to do this, just how to run the programme once. And the readme that comes with it I found to be nigh on impossible to work out, even when I thought I’d got it right it still didn’t work (any techies out there who’d be willing to translate the readme from techy to English???).
So heres hoping to a good, straight forward DDNS solution, and soon.
posted on November 17th, 2006 at 4:59 pm
Anton Kunckle
Great news on the DDNS stuff. Once the indadyn software is installed, is there anyway to test (to know) if it’s working properly? I have a cable connection, and my IP changes infrequently (best guess is once or twice/year).
Thanks,
Anton
posted on November 18th, 2006 at 10:35 am
joe
Anton, you can run inadyn manually on the command line with the –verbose 5 option to see the return code, ‘nochg’ or ‘good’ mean that it’s working properly.
Best,
Joe
posted on November 20th, 2006 at 9:02 am
Aleksandar
I have another problem with inadyn (i know i shouldn’t write here, but here it goes, anyway, since anton did it also
)
[start inadyn log:]
INADYN: Started ‘INADYN version 1.97′ - dynamic DNS updater.
The request for IP server:
http://checkip.dyndns.org/
DYNDNS: IP server response: Current IP CheckCurrent IP Address: xxx.xxx.xx.xxx
W: DYNDNS: My IP address: xxx.xxx.xx.xxx
I:INADYN: IP address for alias ‘opendns’ needs update to ‘xxx.xxx.xx.xxx’
DYNDNS my Request:
https://updates.opendns.com/account/ddns.php?system=dyndns&hostname=opendns&myip
=xxx.xxx.xx.xxx&wildcard=ON&mx=opendns&backmx=NO&offline=NO
W:INADYN: Error validating DYNDNS svr answer. Check usr,pass,hostname!
W:INADYN: DYNDNS Server response:
nohost
[;end inadyn log]
What is going on - username and password are double-checked, only problem seems to be hostname, which is opendns. I am on a DDNS service by my ISP, and i don’t have my own hostname. What should i put there instead of opendns for this baby to start working? (i have tried this several times, even tried to put my dyndns hostname, but no luck, whatsoever.)
posted on November 21st, 2006 at 2:21 am
Kaan
Enable dyndns updates at your control panel first
posted on November 21st, 2006 at 12:54 pm
Alexander
I’m not sure I understood the added function provided by this software tool. I mean, in my job we use a Linksys BEFSR81 router which has built in support for DynDNS.org. Why, exactly, isn’t this built in support enough? (Yes, our IP is dynamic.)
I would like to have the option for .cm to .com typo correction enabled, but it is disabled by default and requires an account to be enabled. So, I’m a little confused here.
posted on November 22nd, 2006 at 5:07 am
Aleksandar
Thanks man, it works now…
posted on November 22nd, 2006 at 11:16 am
Yuhong Bao
My HWR54G Rev. M router supported DDNS by using a hardcoded list of DDNS providers, so I cannot use OpenDNS DDNS with it.
But the list does include dyndns.org.
posted on June 10th, 2007 at 9:36 am
Brian
I’ve modified a dyndns-compatible script for a special case — the update actually takes place from a third server and I use the myip parameter to specify the IP address, but this doesn’t seem to work with opendns, which seems to take the IP addr the request is coming from rather than that specified in the request.
posted on June 20th, 2007 at 5:22 am
John Roberts
@Brian, I’ll have a colleague take a look.
posted on June 20th, 2007 at 5:27 am
John Roberts
@Brian - We don’t use the myip parameter. If we did, you could register send a dynamic IP update for any arbitrary IP of your choosing (once you verified the initial IP in your account). That would not be good, as it would give you control over DNS preferences for (potentially) someone else’s address. DynDNS is dynamic DNS, and we’re more dynamic IP monitoring. DynDNS can use the myip parameter since you wouldn’t want to point your domain to someone else’s IP and break your domain = different use case.
posted on June 20th, 2007 at 11:10 am