Topic: Explaination on dynamic DNS services

[pat]

Hello all,

sorry to bring this subject up... but documentation is a little scarce on this subject.

I setup a server on my home lan (artemis.local.lan). I connect to the Net through a cable modem. My IP is dynamic.

I have registered a few hostnames at WWW.DYNDNS.ORG, one of them being artemis.shacknet.nu to be exact.

It jsut won't work and here is the output of my log file:

Sep  6 12:05:17 artemis dyndns.org: local.lan does not exist on the dyndns.org system

Here are my questions:

1) Is it necessary for my LAN domain name to be the same as the one I'm using at DYNDNS.ORG ?

2) Does my LAN hostname have to be one of the hostames at DYNDNS.ORG

3) Can't I just have artemis.local.lan for my LAN and have something like whatevername.shacknet.nu ?

Kindly,

Pat

[Kelvin]

Pat,

>1) Is it necessary for my LAN domain name to be the same as the one I'm
> using at DYNDNS.ORG ?

Usually, yes. See Q3 below.

> 2) Does my LAN hostname have to be one of the hostames at DYNDNS.ORG

Not sure, I don't bother with hostnames at all.


> 3) Can't I just have artemis.local.lan for my LAN and have something
> like whatevername.shacknet.nu ?

Yes you can. Search the forums, it's been discussed before.

Kelvin

[Boris]

Try to rename "MAIN" server to "artemis.shacknet.nu" and then (if needed) create virtual domain "artemis.local.lan" for your internal home use.

[pat]

hi,

renamed my lan to : shacknet.nu and left my server name to artemis (artemis.shacknet.nu)

Rebooted, and still not updating my IP

Here is the log entry:

-------------------
# cat /var/log/messages | grep dyndns.org

 artemis dyndns.org: shacknet.nu does not exist on the dyndns.org system.
-------------------

What am I doing wrong??? On top of it all my virtual domains are screwed up..hehe (changed doamin name from local.lan to shacknet.nu)

I can't beleive this... its very annoying... is it possible that the build-in dyndns.org client does not work with DynamicDNS service correctly?

BTW I'M using SME 5.5 (free version)

p@

[Tom Veitch]

The SME Dyndns setting do not work if you use any other domain name outher
than thename.dyndns.org if you want it to work with other domain names first
setup the host information at dyndns ie server.homelinux.com the edit the
dyndns.org file in SME to show

domain$=server.homelinux.com

and now your server will update dyndns.org with your ip address
you must setup the rest of the dyndns system in SME as per nomal just make
that change

Tom

[Pat]

Hello all,

well... I must be doing something wrong.

And I find that having to name my own network to that of the dyndns hostname a little unpractical. For me anyways.

So I managed to get a script working but I'd like to know what file I have to modify that will launch it at startup. (rc.loca?) But I want to make sure that it will not be a templated file. On top of it, I can add as many hosts and from different providers... very practical.

here is the command I want to run: ez-ipupdate -c dyndns.conf

Any suggestions?

P@

[Dan Brown]

I find that insisting on using an invalid domain for your LAN is a bit unreasonable, but to each his own.  And really, if you're hosting multiple domains, you should be doing so from a static IP.

In any case, /etc/rc.d/rc.local is not templated, so you can add to it as you like.

[Kelvin]

Hi Dan / Pat,

> I find that insisting on using an invalid domain for your LAN is a bit unreasonable

Actually, there are times when such a move is necessary. For example, one could have their "real" domain hosted by an ISP or a hosting company, while still wanting a separate means of accessing their SME server externally without having a static IP address.

It helps to not complicate matters if the "real" domain name is kept with the Domain hosting company, while another alias is used via DynDNS or some other Dynamic DNS company to gain access to your SME server.

As I have posted earlier this has been discussed before and a slight modification to the standard SME template is all you need to do to get SME to update your DynDNS dynamic record. If you wish to update other Dynamic DNS providers, then you'll need additional scripts / client software. If you only ever need to update DynDNS.org, you could search the forums for the proposed method, which does not require you to add any additional software.

Kelvin

[guck puppy]

Kelvin wrote:
> > I find that insisting on using an invalid domain for your
> > LAN is a bit unreasonable
> Actually, there are times when such a move is necessary. For
> example, one could have their "real" domain hosted by an ISP
> or a hosting company, while still wanting a separate means of
> accessing their SME server externally without having a static
> IP address.

I think Dan was referring to artemis.local.lan as an invalid domain.

Also, I remember reading here of people who have their own domain (say, guckpuppy.com) which is hosted externally, and yet also naming their local lan with the same domain.

Ah well.

G

[Kelvin]

Hi guckpuppy,

> I think Dan was referring to artemis.local.lan as an invalid domain.

MS default suggestion for a local lan is of the form somedomainname.local and I don't find that unreasonable at all.

>Also, I remember reading here of people who have their own domain (say,
> guckpuppy.com) which is hosted externally, and yet also naming their local
> lan with the same domain.

As do I as this will enable mails to be delivered correctly (you just need to make sure that web requests goes to your web host, mails comes to you, etc.). However, since those like me do not have a static IP, using an alias works and works quite well (except if you happen to get assigned a dynamic IP that's been blacklisted by mailabuse or something like that, then you will have problems !  ;-( ).

Kelvin

[Bill Talcott]

Tom Veitch wrote:
>
> The SME Dyndns setting do not work if you use any other
> domain name outher
> than thename.dyndns.org if you want it to work with other
> domain names first
> setup the host information at dyndns ie server.homelinux.com
> the edit the
> dyndns.org file in SME to show
>
> domain$=server.homelinux.com
>
> and now your server will update dyndns.org with your ip
> address
> you must setup the rest of the dyndns system in SME as per
> nomal just make
> that change
>
> Tom

Where exactly is this file that you have to edit?

[Dan Brown]

/sbin/e-smith/dynamic-dns/dyndns.org

[Charlie Brady]

Dan Brown wrote:

> In any case, /etc/rc.d/rc.local is not templated, so you can
> add to it as you like.

It's not templated, but it does contain "signal-event local". Hence you can safely add scripts to /etc/e-smith/events/local and they will be executed on bootup, and you won't lose the additions on upgrade.

Charlie

[Charlie Brady]

Tom Veitch wrote:

> The SME Dyndns setting do not work if you use any other
> domain name outher than thename.dyndns.org

Nor does it need to. Set up thename.dyndns.org, then configure any other domain names in DNS as CNAMES for thename.dyndns.org.

There's no real point in having multiple dynamic DNS updates when one will do and you can set up all the others as aliases of the dynamically updated one.

Charlie

[Alejandro]

Can somebody tell me the path where I can find the dyndns scripts?