‘Free” dynamic DNS

[alanm_3]

I’ve just had a reminder that my DynDNS service is up for renewal but at $99 for 2 years, I’m wondering if there are any free services that offer all I need, that anyone can recommend?
I currently only use it to access my NAS box and CCTV remotely, so I’m not needing an all singing and dancing option.

Thanks in advance.

[solwisesteve]

Why not get a fixed IP address?

I'm with plusnet and there was something like a fiver to set the address up and then no charges afterwards - well just checked my bill and there's no mention of any monthly charge for the fixed address.

[Kingstepper]

In my experience not many providers allow fixed IP except more expensive business accounts.
I was with Plusnet and not happy so switched and now have separate fixed IP using No-IP. Is £28/year but savings on broadband negate this.

[alanm_3]

Sadly Sky won’t/don’t offer a fixed IP address at any cost.

[monogroover]

I've used ClouDNS in the past https://www.cloudns.net/main/

I use a fixed IP now (server in the Amazon cloud) but I recall that it dealt with IP address changes fairly painlessly. I used a three line Python script run from a cronjob which won't be an option for everyone, but I'd guess something similar can be done in Windows. If they aren't frequent you can do it manually on the web.

[David_D]

I used a three line Python script

This is an ex-parrot! It has ceased to be! Hello Polly!!

I’m relatively computer savvy but all of this stuff is way over my head, sadly. Trouble is, when you do a Google search on things like “DNS errors”, which my desktop PC throws up occasionally, it’s almost impossible to find authoritative help which is understandable.

Are there any idiots’ guides anyone can recommend?

Apologies for the thread hijack!

[alanm_3]

Domain Name Service is just like a big phone book for the internet. When you type a name like google.com, this gets translated into an IP address that computers use.
Most DNS errors are caused by the machine you’re on not being able to resolve this relationship.

[trident-7]

Glad it's not just me. DNS means Did not start in my mind

[berin]

I think google have a free one. I use the free one provided by Synology, but you have to have a synology NAS


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[IAmATeaf]

I use dynu.net. Have a cron job on my router which updates dynu if my IP address should change.

[neilma]

No-ip offer a free version. You just get a monthly email asking you to confirm its still in use (and of course try to upsell you to the paid version). I've used the free one for a couple of years or so and the monthly checkbox exercise takes seconds....

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

[wadebridge59]

I use dynu.net. Have a cron job on my router which updates dynu if my IP address should change.

Me. too (DD-WRT). OP, They have client apps available if you can't do something with your router, https://www.dynu.com/en-US/Resources/Downloads.

[Scepticalist]

Google is free as far as I know. I use Google, but I bought a Domain Name from them so no idea if that's a pre-requisite.

[alanm_3]

Thanks all for the useful pointers. It turns out that dynDNS is the only natively supported DDNS service on the Sky router, so I’ll experiment with a few of the suggestions made.

Many thanks.