DNS – the dynamic way – hosting a site from home

DNS – the dynamic way – hosting a site from home

This article was originally written when Monolith (ml.org) offerred free dynamic dns
facilities.  Unfortunately, Monolith is no longer.  So most of this page became
irrelevent.

See the end of this page for other organisations.

What is dynamic DNS?

I’ve written a bit about DNS already.  But most DNS entries assume the IP is
static and will not change on a regular basis.  This is fine for machines that are
permanently connected to the Internet and have a static IP address.  But most of us
have dynamic IP addresses which change every time we log on.  That makes it necessary
to update the DNS entries on a regular basis.

Client software

The primary method of updating your DNS records is using a browser.  That is not
very convenient if you dial up frequently and get a new IP every time.  There is
something better; a dynamic-DNS client

Other organisations that provide this service
include:

DNS Wizard
Dynamic Host Information System – they have shut down
but source code is available
Dark Technologies
The Free Dynamic DOMAIN project (uses software from http://gnudip.cheapnet.net)
Microtech DNS Servers

More service providers (added on 22 January 2001)

This place lists many dynamic DNS service providers:

http://www.technopagan.org/dynamic/