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Dyn.com Ends Free Dynamic DNS

Posted by samzenpus on from the end-of-the-line dept.

First time accepted submitter mkitchin (1285710) writes in with news about Dyn ending its free DNS service. "For the last 15 years, all of us at Dyn have taken pride in offering a free version of our Dynamic DNS Pro product. What was originally a product built for a small group of users has blossomed into an exciting technology used around the world. That is why with mixed emotions we announced the end of that free hostname program today, officially turning down on May 7th."

47 of 242 comments (clear)

  1. Alternatives by Chrisq · · Score: 5, Informative

    A quick search reveals http://www.noip.com/, and I'm sure they'll be more. Anyway isn't this supposed to be a stopgap before IPV6 means we can all have permanent static IPS?!

    1. Re:Alternatives by Chrisq · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Permanent static IPs sound like a privacy nightmare, anyway.

      but think of the time it will save the NSA

    2. Re:Alternatives by rahvin112 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Considering Dyn bought several promised "free for life" DNS services then promptly killed them you need to realize they'll probably do it again. They've apparently decided the best business model is buy out their free competitors and put them out business.

    3. Re:Alternatives by BenFranske · · Score: 4, Informative

      I know it's not very slashdot-like to do some research before posting but if you're not familiar with IPv6 please do yourself a favor and check it out thoroughly before spreading FUD. Yes, IPs are (most frequently) tied to MAC addresses _BUT_ you almost always will have 3 IPv6 addresses... a link-local address for communication just on the local subnet, a globally public one tied to your MAC (which you can distribute to people who you WANT to reach you), and a global public "temporary" IP address which you can use for outgoing connections but which will change periodically and will not be tied to your MAC. Of course this all depends a little on your IPv6 stack in your OS but this is how it's typically being handled.

    4. Re:Alternatives by TheRaven64 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Most ISPs don't change your IP on a regular basis anyway, so IP-based tracking narrows you down to a residential connection already. IPv6 is actually better in this regard because most implementation (yes, including Windows) let you keep a single static IP (or more than one) that you use for publicly advertised services but then regularly cycle IPs for outbound connections. This is something that most network stacks let you tune, but at the extreme case you can use a new IP for every new outbound connection (I think the default is a new one every 2 hours for most systems). This doesn't help much if you're the only user on a residential connection, but it makes tracking a lot harder if that's on something like a university campus.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    5. Re:Alternatives by psychonaut · · Score: 3, Informative

      With No-IP's free service, host names expire every 30 days. I imagine this will be rather inconvenient for many people, even if all that's required to prevent the expiry is to log into your account (as Dyn.com has required for the past year or so).

    6. Re:Alternatives by radiumsoup · · Score: 2

      so you're saying someone could take the vacuum of service this opportunity generates to make a free dynamic DNS service, and once it hits a certain subscriber number, sell it to Dyn.com, then rinse, repeat?

      Sounds like a plan.

    7. Re:Alternatives by jittles · · Score: 3, Informative

      A quick search reveals http://www.noip.com/, and I'm sure they'll be more. Anyway isn't this supposed to be a stopgap before IPV6 means we can all have permanent static IPS?!

      I've been using ZoneEdit for a long time. They've changed their business model slightly. Don't know if they still offer as many free options any more, but they have been great for me for over 10 years now!

    8. Re:Alternatives by Gr8Apes · · Score: 2

      MAC addresses are changeable. Thanks to Digital for forcing that option, IIRC :)

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
    9. Re:Alternatives by SeaFox · · Score: 3, Informative

      With No-IP's free service, host names expire every 30 days.

      They only expire if you're too lazy to visit their website for three minutes to do a captcha when they send you the email saying your domain is about to expire. I've been doing it for months and have had uninterrupted service.

    10. Re:Alternatives by udippel · · Score: 2

      Wrong. Only if no client contacts their servers.
      And I did that for almost 2 years until I got a client installed to update the zone file regularly, and now this requirement is gone.

    11. Re:Alternatives by ultranova · · Score: 2

      Probably actually. It's way easier to manage that way. It also solves tons of problems.

      The problem is... that's also true of all always-on connections. The whole reason we got dynamic IPs in the first place is that a 300-line ISP only needed one IP per line, not one per customer. But an always-on broadband customer needs one IP per computer, and the only question is whether they're public or behind a NAT. IPv6 removes the need for NAT, but does not solve the "need" for a dynamic IP for a broadband customer since there never was one in the first place, except for greed. And, sadly, technology can't solve greed.

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

  2. Viable Replacement? by krept · · Score: 2

    Anyone have a recommended replacement service?

    --
    None of us know everything. Therefore we're all naïve.
    1. Re:Viable Replacement? by c4t3l · · Score: 5, Insightful

      afraid.org?? They are decent.

    2. Re:Viable Replacement? by Rinisari · · Score: 2

      Since my primary usage of their service is to access my array of routers at networks I control, I plan on using one of these alternatives if DNSimple, where I have a paid account, doesn't implement dyndns support in the next 30 days:

      http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/ind...

      --
      Colin Dean Go a year without DRM
    3. Re:Viable Replacement? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      dyndns.org
      freedns.afraid.org
      no-ip.com
      zoneedit.com
      3322.org
      easydns.com
      tzo.com
      dynsip.org

      They are all pretty much the same as far as I care.

    4. Re:Viable Replacement? by elerran · · Score: 5, Informative

      Been very happy with https://freedns.afraid.org/ ever since dyndns deleted my free domain because I didn't login to their website once a month.

    5. Re:Viable Replacement? by MightyYar · · Score: 2

      I've been happy with ChangeIP for several years now, ever since Dyn started their pushy shenanigans.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    6. Re:Viable Replacement? by robmv · · Score: 4, Funny

      dyndns.org

      Recursion found!

    7. Re:Viable Replacement? by ProzacPatient · · Score: 5, Informative

      Been very happy with https://freedns.afraid.org/ ever since dyndns deleted my free domain because I didn't login to their website once a month.

      This happened to me as well; I used to use dyndns but I lost my domain when they switched the domain I had been using to a "premium" one so then I had to go and reconfigure everything that depended on it to a new domain so after looking at some other alternatives I ultimately decided to use EntryDNS with my own domain I bought from GoDaddy.

      EntryDNS is donation driven and doesn't have any of the bull I found at over services (login once a month, upgrade to premium spam, link back to their site, etc..) and you have both the option of using a free subdomain and/or using your own domain. I've been very happy with their service and am considering donating something as a token of appreciation.

    8. Re:Viable Replacement? by geminidomino · · Score: 2

      I moved away from them to DNS Exit after finding out that Afraid's default setup was to let anyone create a subdomain on your domain.

      DNSExit isn't without their issues, though. If you don't want to use your DNS client, they have an HTTP updater. Unfortuantely, it's unencrypted and you need to put your password in as a "GET" parameter. Ugh!

    9. Re:Viable Replacement? by rotaryexpress · · Score: 4, Informative

      Free Dynamic DNS is fine but....
      I've used Namecheap.com for my personal domain for a few years now and recently found out you can do dynamic DNS with them too. I realize it's not free, but, it's my own domain on a service I'm paying for. It's nice having house.(mydomain).com...

    10. Re:Viable Replacement? by Curunir_wolf · · Score: 2

      Nobody uses Zonomi?

      --
      "Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
      --- Jerry Garcia
    11. Re:Viable Replacement? by Spoke · · Score: 2

      Yeah, this. For way less than the price of what Dyn charges for DNS service, you can get your own domain name AND dynamic DNS service.

      All with a company that doesn't try to screw you over every year, too.

  3. Their basic service is only $25 / year by damn_registrars · · Score: 3, Informative

    I know it sucks to see something go from free to not free, but a while ago I upped by agreement with them from free service to their most basic level. For me its worth the $25 per year. Others may feel otherwise, and their may be cheaper solutions out there as well, but it works pretty well for me.

    I also like that someone wrote an auto-update utility (ddclient in FreeBSD) that I can run on my webserver as a daemon to keep my records updated should my ISP change my address on me.

    --
    Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
    1. Re:Their basic service is only $25 / year by NJRoadfan · · Score: 2

      Part of the problem is some devices that offer dynamic DNS updaters (routers in particular) only support the DynDNS service.

  4. Still free for life for donors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I made a donation back in the 90's so I still get my lifetime free vip account.

    Other alternatives sell your e-mail address to spammers so beware! I'd use a junk e-mail account.

  5. People were still using them? by jrumney · · Score: 2, Informative

    Dyn.com (the for-profit successor of dyndns.org) has been progressively making it harder to maintain your free address for the past 3 or 4 years. First, they made it so you had to update your DNS record once a month to avoid being cancelled (even if your IP address didn't change in that time), then they made it so you had to submit the update through their ad-infested web page, and I think they also increased the frequency that you had to do that. There are many alternatives which still provide a free service that is convenient to use, I'd have thought most users would have switched by now.

  6. Re:You cancel service? by bobbied · · Score: 5, Informative

    I smell a business opportunity... Or, perhaps not.

    Having used Dyndns for nearly a decade, I'm sad to see it go pay only. Can't say I'm surprised. I figured this was on the way when they went to this - you have to log in each month or we delete your two free host names - that they where just trying to get us all to pay. Problem is, I really cannot see paying $25/year for the services they provide.

    --
    "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  7. Re:Another case for open source firmware. by zerro · · Score: 2

    "Effectively, they are taking away functionality that I have already paid for."

    You mean to say that you already paid DynDNS for service? If so, I dont see how this affects you, as you are a paying customer.
    If you are talking about something you paid to a hardware/software company for a router which had dyndns feature - generating value for the said router vendor, but no revenue for dyndns - I'm not sure I understand the fairness in your argument.

  8. changeip.com by shellster_dude · · Score: 3, Informative

    I use changeip.com. They provide great, free service, and I don't have to constantly "renew" the service.

  9. Re:You cancel service? by YukariHirai · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm also sad to see it go pay only, and have been using it for quite some years. But I figure... well, considering how much I spend on everything else technology and internet, $25 a year isn't going to kill me.

  10. NOIP does the same... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    But dyn actually stopped sending the renewal emails, thus losing me my addresses, then turning out to have deleted those domains as available options for non-paying customers.

    That's when I ended my relationship with them and jumped to noip.

    After this though, I wonder how long util NOIP does the same.

  11. Re:You cancel service? by gl4ss · · Score: 2

    yeah but at 25 bucks / year you might just as well get something real...

    --
    world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
  12. Re:You cancel service? by Bill,+Shooter+of+Bul · · Score: 4, Funny

    Eh, They cancelled my account years ago after my router screwed up and started sending them updates to them as fast as it could. They thought it was a DOS attempt or something. It was really just my US Robotics DSL modem telling me it wanted to be set on fire and then smashed into small pieces. But, I understood their decision.

    --
    Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
  13. Re:You cancel service? by spire3661 · · Score: 2

    $25/year gives you 32 changeable names.

    --
    Good-bye
  14. Overvalued by SkunkPussy · · Score: 2

    The service they provide is worth about £1 or £2 a year.

    --
    SURELY NOT!!!!!
  15. Re:You cancel service? by Redmancometh · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I used them a very long time ago, and recently tried to use them for a project. I ended up just using records from one of my domains, and using a little magic to compensate for the dynamic IP.

    My observation was that they've made it harder and harder to actually set up the free service. Every click involved trying to sell me something. It was as bad or worse about "upselling" than godaddy.

  16. Re:You cancel service? by ncc74656 · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you had donated at some point in the past, it looks like you get grandfathered in. From the email they sent me:

    In an effort to better service our customers through increased support and a cleaner network, Dyn announced that in the next 30 days, we will no longer be supporting free hostnames. However, because you believed in us and supported this company through your donations, we are continuing to fulfill our promise to you: your service is still free for life.

    I donated somewhere around $10-$20 once, probably at least a decade ago.

    --
    20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
  17. Re:You cancel service? by augahyde · · Score: 2

    yeah but at 25 bucks / year you might just as well get something real...

    What is something real? A permanent IP address, i.e. business class service, costs far more than $25. I just checked with Comcast recently and it started around $60 per month. And if you want cable TV, you cannot have DVR with business class service.

  18. Re:You cancel service? by Guspaz · · Score: 3, Informative

    And my .com/.net/.org domain (that costs less than $25/year) gets me an infinite number of changeable names. I simply set the TTL on the subdomains low and update it whenever the IPs change.

  19. domain != dyndns by kevlar_rat · · Score: 5, Informative

    There is a little confusion here. Dynamic DNS means the domain record is constantly updated to point to the correct IP address. Its completely independent of domain registration. godaddy does not offer a dyndns service. Most dyndns services do not offer domains.
    DynDNS is useful if you want to be able to always contact a box on a domain, but it's got a dynamic IP address - i.e. typically for running a server on a home box. I use it to ssh into home when I'm away, I just do ssh mydyndomain.org and don't need to worry about IP addresses.
    I have had domains with godaddy in the past, but I've always used dyn.com as well.
    It is possible to use a script to update your A record through your registrar's web interface, but this will break every time they update the site.
    P.S. I recommend not using godaddy.

    --
    Moderated Usenet
    1. Re:domain != dyndns by Rufus+Firefly · · Score: 2
      Enom has an API to do this. It's trivial to set update your A record using it.

      But I agree, every time you use godaddy, baby Jesus kills a kitten.

  20. Re:You cancel service? by dysmal · · Score: 2

    Godaddy... Godaddy... Hrmmm.. Weren't they in the news for something internet related?

    http://godaddyboycott.org/

    http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/12/29/2053252/wikipedia-to-dump-godaddy-over-sopa

  21. Re:You cancel service? by kcwebmonkey · · Score: 2

    I switched over to http://freedns.afraid.org/ after they started requiring you to log in monthly and haven't looked back since.

  22. Re:You cancel service? by kcwebmonkey · · Score: 3, Informative

    No-IP is a great free dynamic DNS alternative http://noip.co/1jVi5th

    their free service also requires you to sign in every month. I'd suggest a service like http://freedns.afraid.org/ which is completely free and doesn't require monthly logins to keep your account active.

  23. Re:You cancel service? by thesupraman · · Score: 2

    are you *really* trying to compare a service at $25/year with a service at $35/month?

    I think you have missed an important part of the comparison..