Every host on the Internet must have at least one IP address to be able to communicate with others. However there are only a limited number of IP addresses available to use and that's running out very fast. IPv6 is supposed to solve this problem but it is not widespread yet. Therefore, ISPs today treat IP addresses as very precious resource and must be conserved as much as possible. To make use IP address eficiently, they started to assign dynamic IP address to dial-up clients. This means every time a client get connected, he/she will be assigned a different IP address. Usually this won't be a problem for typical client activies, but all server applications suffers. This is like having your telephone number change every day, people will have a very hard time reaching you.
We offer Dynamic DNS feature to overcome this problem. Dynamic DNS will assign a static hostname (such as: myhome.example.com) even if your IP address changes. The only requirement is that you need to have an email client check a specified fake POP3 account periodically. This is required to inform our Dynamic DNS server your current IP address so that it can be updated on the server whenever it changes.
There are a lot applications that could benefit from having a static hostname.
File Transfer. Transfering files over the Internet is not always a simple matter especially if they are very big. Files over 10 MB in size are almost impossible to transfer by email, most mail servers are rejecting emails too big in size. It is not efficient either, files grow larger when attached to an email. Uploading to hosting account might not be possible due to disk space limitation, not to mention it will cost twice the time. With dynamic DNS you can have the files transferred directly between two regular dial-up accounts without requiring static IP addresses. Have one host named using dynamic DNS and the other host download or upload the files by using FTP.
Remote Administration. Give a dynamic DNS name to your home computer and install a remote administration software. If you leave your home computer running and connected to the Internet, then you will be able to control it while you are at work, Internet cafe, or anywhere with Internet access.
Virtual Private Network (VPN). If your office is still using a dial-up account, it is normally hard to do VPNs since you don't know the IP address in advance. With dynamic DNS you can easily have any employee connect to company network remotely even if the Internet IP address changes.
Internet Voice & Video Communication. With software like Microsoft ® Windows ® NetMeeting ® or any compatible software you can receive audio and video calls. With dynamic DNS you can have your friends call you by using an address like myself.example.com
Webcam and Home Surveillance. With a webcam and a web server software you can publish live pictures to the Internet. With dynamic DNS you can easily publish the address to your friends. It is also possible to use webcams as home surveillance system so that you can monitor your house, kids, etc while at work.
Note
We only provide the Dynamic DNS service part of the service, the above examples of applications are only a few example that can utilize Dynamic DNS service we are providing. We don't provide those services, corresponding technical support and the required software. Some of the examples above are advanced topics and might require qualified technician.
To create dynamic DNS record, please do the following:
Log on to SiteManager if you haven't already logged in.
Go to .
Go to , enter the name of subdomain you want to create, select , and then click .
On the next screen you will be asked the password that can be used for changing this hostname's IP address. Try not to forget the password now and press to continue.
On the next screen you will be confirmed of your choice. Press to continue.
Before your dynamic DNS subdomain is usable, you need to have an email client check a special POP3 mailbox in a regular interval. For example, if you created home.example.com as a dynamic DNS subdomain, you need to have an email client check email with the following configuration:
Hostname: 'setup.home.example.com' without quotes; i.e. add 'setup' in front of your subdomain name.
Port: 8110; the default port of POP3 is 110, you need to change it to 8110.
Protocol: POP3
Username: 'home.example.com' without quotes; the POP3 username is your full subdomain name.
Password: the same password you set when creating the dynamic DNS subdomain.
You need to have the email client check the above mailbox every 10 minutes. You will not actually receive any email from the POP3 account. This POP3 checking is only a way to tell our server the current IP address of your computer. When the POP3 server receives your authentication from your email client, it will note your current IP address and update our dynamic DNS server accordingly.
There are also several options you can set on your dynamic DNS subdomain. On of the actions of a dynamic DNS subdomain should be . From there you can configure whether to use wildcard address or not; the MX record; and whether the MX record is a backup MX record. When wildcard option is enables, you can also have the current IP address accessed using anything.home.example.com, where 'anything' is, well, anything. MX record is used to deliver emails to another email server other than the current IP address. When backup MX is enabled, the specified MX record will act as a backup email server, if your current host is not reachable, it will accept your subdomain's email and deliver it to your dynamic host once it becomes online.