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DynDNS Cuts Back Free DNS Options
First time accepted submitter LazyBoyWrangler writes "Just noticed the 'free' non-commercial service from DynDNS has been deprecated. Not my place to argue with their business model changes, but the home router infrastructure out there has been built around the promise of free dynamic DNS service. Most manufacturers offer DynDNS as their only option. Removing the free service for non-commercial folks seems disingenuous when they are the only option for many users." According to the linked page, the free service is being drastically cut back for new users (one free hostname, rather than five, and from a shorter list of branded domains), but not ended entirely. Existing users, it says, will see no changes "as long as you keep your hostnames active and up-to-date. If you allow your account or hostnames to expire, you will have to select from the new domains instead and will be limited to the one free hostname."
I've been using this site for a while now and I must say I like it.
Already lost a domain name I had for I have no idea how many years because google marked the notification as junk so I never saw it.
I'm partly to blame for not logging in every other day to make sure my account didn't expire.
While there are services, like DynDNS with proprietary interfaces the reality is that dynamic DNS has a standard interface. RFC 2136 style updates should work with any provider, allowing equipment makers to support everyone. While DynDNS has supported people well, I hope this move makes end users demand RFC standard support in devices so that ANY dynamic DNS provider can be used. There are choices other than DynDNS, they have maintained their lead only via a proprietary interface and a market lead.
I think this is great news. Maybe router manufacturers will now be smart enough to simply include DNS Update (RFC 2136) support instead of the proprietary dyndns garbage. Enter your domain name and a key and you're all set.
I use them, but I only have one address anyway.
Vote with your checkbook. We're not talking thousands of dollars or life critical systems here.
This was done a *long* time ago. Years? Old news is old.
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
Was dealing with a DynDNS owned service awhile back. Took a very famous client from a competitor, and the competitor insisted they owned the web site, even though I had the contract with the previous company that clearly stated that they didn't. Previous company sends DynDNS a DMCA notice, I sent proof the notice was crap (with pertinent sections of the contracted highlighted for easy reading), they took down the web site... and then I moved my DNS to GoDaddy. It's disheartening that DynDNS are such complete shit heads. I will never do business with them, or any company owned by them again, and you shouldn't either.
This signature has Super Cow Powers
It seems like the router manufacturers, who have essentially been free-riding on dyndns' service as a selling point for their routers.
You actually read the submission and checked the facts, possibly avoiding a flame fest. This is totally unacceptable and goes against everything /. stands for.
I have been using no-ip for years without any problems. It is supported on several brand s of routers and in case it isn't there is an update client (also free) that you can run on windows/mac/linux/BSD/unix that will keep your monitor your (external) IP address for changes and updates the dns records at no-ip.
This policy change is many months old, maybe even over a year.
When I saw the article, I thought that maybe there were even more changes, but I saw nothing new that I did not know since at least the first quarter of this year. I'd have to go rifle through my email archive to know for sure exactly when I first heard about this change.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
amusing to see how http://dyndns.org/ has changed over the years; in 1999 complaining on the front page about the programmer leaving and taking all his code with him to a completely anonymous, plasticky "professional" look in 2011 and all the slow changes in between,
Agreed -- this is old news. I got my notice about this change on 27 Aug 2010 -- about a year and a half ago. Submitter has been asleep at the switch.
Given that they're still giving me free stuff, just not quite as much free stuff, I didn't really feel all that upset about it. :)
Here's most of the text of the notice:
From: "DynDNS Support"
To: dragonhawk@
Subject: Changes to NEW DynDNS.com Accounts
Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:39:14 -0300
Reply-To: support@dyndns.com
Return-Path: marketer@bouncelabs.com
What changes are you talking about?
Previously we allowed each Dynamic DNS account to have 5 free hostnames and you could select them from 88 different domains that we own. Now this will be limited to 2 free hostnames from 18 DynDNS branded domains.
Also, we are increasing the number of hostnames that come with a DynDNS Pro upgrade. Previously, each DynDNS Pro upgrade gave you the ability to add 25 additional hostnames. We are increasing that number to 30.
Why are you making these changes?
There are a number of reasons that we thought it was important to make these changes now.
Having 88 free domains to choose from was overwhelming for many of our new users. By reducing this to 18 it makes it easier for people to get started.
By limiting the free options to the DynDNS branded domains, it helps grow the awareness of our services. Although we are happy to offer our free services, we simply ask that you help spread the word to other people who might find our paid services helpful. We have to pay those bills somehow.
Looking at the stats of our users over the past 12 years, we see that the vast majority of people only use 1 free hostname. Our support team has seen a lot of confusion caused by the five free hostnames, so when you combine that with the normal use case, it just made sense. We are allowing the 2nd hostname for those who need to create a WebHop to access your hostname. If you are going to need more than 1 or 2 hostnames there's a good chance you are using us for something important. If that's the case, we simply ask that you pay $15/yr for the DynDNS Pro upgrade, which provides a number of other benefits.
If you are using our services for business critical needs, you should consider our Custom DNS service.
What will happen to my current account and hostnames?
Nothing, as long as you keep your hostnames active and up-to-date. If you allow your account or hostnames to expire, you will have to select from the new domains instead and will be limited to the 2 free hostnames. To ensure you arenâ(TM)t affected by these changes, upgrade to DynDNS Pro for just $15/yr. Again, there are a number of other benefits to upgrading.
You're just trying to force us to pay you, aren't you?
No, not really. As long as you keep your account active, you won't be affected by these changes. We would never want to have a user feel like they were forced to use our services. This does not seem to be a very good business model to us. You do your part (log into your account or update your hostname monthly) and we will do ours (continue to offer free Dynamic DNS services to you).
dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
DynDNS, they have maintained their lead only via a proprietary interface and a market lead.
Dyn has submitted their HTTP update API as an IETF draft:
http://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-jennings-app-dns-update-02.txt
So it's not proprietary (limited to or owned by them). You might call it non-standard, but if that draft was accepted it would be on the IETF standards track.
Also, Dyn *does* offer DNS UPDATE support, but only for paying customers:
http://dyn.com/support/clients/dynamic-dns-updates-via-tsig/
dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
It's disheartening that DynDNS are such complete shit heads.
I've done business with Dyn, Inc., before, and found them cluefull and willing to help. I know some of the people who work there, and they are not complete shit heads.
Sorry about your situation. Another reason to hate the DMCA, I think.
dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
As far as I know, the rules are the same.
For the free hostname, you have to submit an update at least once every 30 days, even if your IP address hasn't changed. Otherwise, the free account will be deleted.
If you send updates *too often*, you'll get blocked for abuse. "Too often" isn't defined anywhere that I find easily, but more than once every several days or so is a good threshold to use. You'll get an email if this happens. Also, the "too often" limit only applies if your IP address hasn't actually changed -- legit updates get a different scale.
I update every 15 days, and have never had an issue.
Since you mention your model is having intermittent trouble anyway, it sounds like the problem is just crappy modem software. There's a lot of that out there. (LinkSys's DNS update client was broken for *years*, and they're one of the biggest SOHO router vendors.) I'd suggest disabling DNS update on your modem and using a known-good client on a PC behind your modem.
http://dyn.com/support/clients/
dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
Personally, I can't really find much of an issue here. Yes, 99% of routers might only have DynDNS as an option, but I'd also wager than about 95% of the routers out there don't use a dynamic DNS server anyways, and of those that do, very few care to setup more than 1 domain name. I doubt this change will affect very many users.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
Worth a look: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/What_is_DD-WRT%3F
Open source router firmware provides support for a number of dynamic dns providers. Including: DynDNS, easyDNS, FreeDNS, No-IP, TZO, ZoneEdit, custom, and others
If you have a rented server somewhere running a DNS server, then the usual suggestion I make is to roll your own dynamic DNS. Before somone says "but my router only supports DyDNS", there are solutions that can allow you to update your own dynamic DNS anyway -- the main trick is getting your public IP address. If you also run your own web server, it's quite simple to create a web page like "whatismyip" in PHP:
(start PHP here)
echo $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
(stop PHP here)
And from there you can make a custom shell script that checks your public IP, compares it with what your DNS server has for the entry, and then update your DNS server if needed. This doesn't need to be done at the router -- it can be done through it if necessary. If you run Bind9, look at the 'nsupdate' utility -- and of particular note, it's possible to do this dynamic DNS update via TCP rather than UDP. That way you can guarantee that the update will get there. AFAIK all of the popular DNS servers have a way of doing dynamic DNS updates such that they don't have to be done right at the router.
It's more convenient to do this at the router, though, because the router is on all the time and desktops/laptops aren't. So if you really want to also run a custom router to do the job for you, you might like the Alix hardware such as this:
http://pcengines.ch/alix2d3.htm
Debian runs nicely on the Alix hardware directly, using a kernel for a 486.
Worth a look: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/What_is_DD-WRT%3F
Open source router firmware provides support for a number of dynamic dns providers. Including: DynDNS, easyDNS, FreeDNS, No-IP, TZO, ZoneEdit, custom, and others
They took over handling of the "EveryDNS" free service, with promises to continue the service.
But now they have forced all EveryDNS users who want to keep using the service to pay them to migrate.
And EveryDNS is gone.
Obviously the choice of DynDNS to be the ones to take over the service was a bit disingenuous, since, it was just a strategy to make more $$$ while pretending to be altruistic
That was what pissed me off. But yeah, this is old news.
Hell I think dynamic DNS should be a basic function of the net. That's how it was supposed to go. What is this Facebook shit. We're supposed to have our own servers. Indeed, back in the day it was actually originally set up where you directly applied for a class C IP range. That was a perfectly reasonable premise. It's interesting how far we've gotten away from that rather simple concept.
huh. I've been paying for DNS registration and a dynamic account through them for so long that I hadn't noticed the change. The only annoyance that had any affect on me was when I changed from a static to dynamic DNS with one of my three ISPs. Right now, my wife (plus two kids) and I live in two different locales. I recently switched her ISP to a faster service, but have to overlap the service while she updates e-mail addresses with her various e-mail accounts. I had trouble when I wanted the former static address to update dynamically, but once I understood that this (with the paid service) happened on the client side, I was a happy camper. I would have been happy sooner if they gave explicit instruction for this, but it all worked out for me in the end.
I gave them $10 (or something) way back when and it seems I have an indefinitely paid account.
That's pretty classy in my book.
I still have a permanently free Pro account.
That's pretty classy in my books.
Yah, how *dare* they not let you take their property (a domain name they pay for) and use it for free?!?
It seems scummy because they managed to lure a whole bunch of people in by offering service for free and then changing the rules, using the fact that users can't move their subdomains to anywhere else to force them to pay for an overpriced service. It's not actually terribly hard to run your own dynamic DNS, it's just that there wasn't any reason to and it didn't work as well because most consumer routers only supported DynDNS.
This thread is worth a read regarding dyndns and their practises.
They recently bought everydns and editdns, offered existing users who paid or donated "free" accounts, and then once they bought it, went back on their word. the free accounts included a migration fee for domains, and the accounts were limited, so users would have to pay again to get the same level of service they may have paid for at editdns for example (and due to dyndns strange pricing where you have a limit of 75 subdomains on the standard paid account, you may have to pay them a significant amount of money)
Also worth noting, then editdns users expressed their concerns, dyndns were very quick to close down their old forum and place with a note to email their staff.
Worth noting that Hurrican Electric have a free dns service (http://dns.he.net) - with up to 50 domains allowed and it can operate as a secondary dns also. They also include a dynamic dns facility. There are some other free options left, but how long until dyndns buys them too ? :)
It is a business... You were getting something for free. Now if you want it you have to pay $20 per YEAR. Not really a huge cost in my opinion. If you really need to use it you get a single address for free, or you pay for more. I havent had the need for it in years since comcast gives me the same ip for years at a time and when it changes I just login to gmail and go to the bottom and click "Details" and it shows me all the ips that I have logged in with and one of them is my home machine.
Can someone please explain this troll to me?
The first line is to thank you for being a friend.
The second line is a metaphor describing life as a journey.
The third line is very deep. You can meditate for hours on the connections with the first two lines: cosmonauts obviously take long journeys, for example.
The second stanza is again a metaphor, this time on life being a party and the importance of having good friends. This again connects with the sentiments from the first stanza.
Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.