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Domain Name with a Dynamic IP Address

     - Monday, May 31, 2004

Dynamic IP addresses are just so messy. It's like living in a world where your phone number changes every day. It makes it so hard for people to reach you. A static IP address would make it so much easier, but many of us aren't offered that by our ISP. Even if you do have a static IP, there's still all those numbers to remember instead of a simple domain name.

Why would you want a domain name that pointed to your own computer? There are a couple of reason, starting with your ability to host your own website. Or maybe you want to use VNC to remotely control your computer. Or you want to remotely control your router, or run an FTP server, or run your own email server. The possibilities are endless.

Before we get into that though, we need to talk about security. You'll need to have a router on your home network, such as a Linksys. This way you can block all incoming traffic except just the ports you want to open. You'll also need to lower the firewall internet zone security in Zone Alarm to Medium. This will allow your ports to accept incoming traffic while still allowing you to control internet access by programs on your computer. Since you've configured your router to only forward a couple specific ports, only those ports will actually get through to your machine.

The actual Domain Name system is handled in two parts. You'll need a website that will give you a name, and keep the record of what your computers IP address is. You can sign up for a free account at ipupdater.com. After you log into ipupdater.com with your new account, you can create a hostname, something like yourname.ipupdater.com.

Next, you'll need to download a program to run on your machine. The program will periodically check your IP address, and if it changes it will let ipupdater.com know. The program can be a little tricky to configure, so I'll step through it here.

Download and install DirectUpdate. The program comes in 3 parts: a Engine Module which does the work, an Admin Module to configure the program, and a Control Module to start/stop the engine and to launch the Admin Module. The Engine is installed as an NT service so you'll only see it in the services page. The Control is just the taskbar icon which sits next to your clock.

To configure DirectUpdate, launch the Admin module and select the Engine Connection tab. The engine is running on your own machine, so enter localhost. Because the engine can be managed remotely, you should also set a password. Then on the Status tab, select create, and enter your username and password (from ipupdater.com) and click retrieve list. Check off Unclassified in the group id list and click OK. Now DirectUpdate will know who and how to update when your IP address changes.

How often will it check your address? DirectUpdate can determine your IP address from several websites, or from your router. If using a website, it won't let you check more often than every 10 minutes. So you'll want to configure your router's status page as the first item to check, and it'll check every 60 seconds. Press F1 for a help page on the "Edit IP address detection" page. Check the logs to ensure the update is actually happening.

When your IP changes it will still take a few minutes to update in the DNS records.

Now you can get busy running your own website, but we'll save that topic for another post.

DNS Services at ipupdater.com - signup for free
DirectUpdate - download the software

posted by Kevin Watts |  Permalink |