What is a DDNS (Dynamic DNS)?

DDNS, most commonly known as Dynamic DNS, is an automatic method of refreshing a name server. It can dynamically update DNS records without the need for human interaction. It is extremely useful for updating A and AAAA records when the host has changed its IP address.

Imagine this situation. You have a server in your office, and you are providing some service to your employees. You are using a standard/consumer-grade internet from a typical ISP (Internet service provider). You are getting a temporary IP address that could change the next type you connect or change automatically after some time. To provide a service, you 3 options:

1. A Static IP address that could be expensive.
2. Change the IP address manually every time it changes
3. Automatically update the IP addresses – Dynamic DNS or DDNS!

DDNS is a service that automatically and periodically updates your DNS’s A (IPv4) or AAAA (IPv6) records when your IP address changes. These IP changes are made by your Internet provider.

With DDNS you don’t need to worry about the changes in IP addresses!

In this article, you can find more information about what DNS is!

How does DDNS work?

The DDNS works in the following way: The DDNS client monitors the IP address for changes. When the address changes (which it will if you have a dynamic IP address), the DDNS (or Dynamic DNS) service updates your new IP address.

Let’s get back to the same example from before, you owning a server, connected to the Internet, and want to share service from it. 

This server will be connected to the internal network, and it will communicate with the Internet via NAT (Network Address Translation) router. The NAT router will provide an internal IP address to the server, probably via DHCP. To Make it available externally, we will need to perform port forwarding and get external Port (Portex) and external IP address (IPex). Now the service you want to share is visible with IPex and Portex, and people can use it through the Internet. The problem comes when this IP changes. 

First, you will need to register with a Dynamic DNS provider like us and set up a client software on your server. In the Dynamic DNS settings, you will give a fixed name to this server. Put the IPex, and we need to tell the NAT to automatically update it and send the data to the DNS server.  Inside the NAT’s settings, we will put the data from our Dynamic DNS service provider (our account and password). Now everything is ready. 

Free Dynamic DNS Service!

Why is it useful?

It can be very useful for people who want to host their website, access CCTV cameras, VPN, app or game server from their home computer. It is cheaper than to have a static public IP and by setting up DDNS, you will avoid the need to update all of your records whenever your IP changes manually. Also, a static IP address is not always an option; it depends on your Internet provider.

DDNS is a very flexible option. The way that Dynamic DNS gives a connected device the ability to notify DNS servers to automatically update, alongside the active DNS configuration, IP addresses, configured hostnames and some other information. This saves the need of an administrator who should do the changes.

Common use cases for DDNS

DDNS is a valuable tool in scenarios where devices are assigned dynamic IP addresses. Here are the key use cases:

• Home Servers: If you’re hosting a personal website, game server, or file storage at home, DDNS ensures you can always access your server via a fixed domain name, even if your IP changes regularly.
• Remote Access to Security Cameras: Many people use DDNS to view their home CCTV cameras remotely. Instead of updating the IP address every time it changes, DDNS keeps the connection steady through a permanent domain name.
• VPN and Remote Desktop: Whether for work or personal use, accessing a home or office network remotely via VPN or remote desktop is easier with DDNS, allowing uninterrupted connections despite changing IP addresses.
• IoT and Smart Home Devices: DDNS is often used to manage smart home systems or IoT devices. It ensures that even when your home’s IP changes, you can always reach devices like smart lights, thermostats, and more from any location.
• Game Servers and Media Streaming: Hosting a game or media server at home? DDNS provides consistent access for friends or family to your server, regardless of your ISP changing your IP.

By automating IP updates, DDNS saves you the hassle of manually tracking and updating IP changes, offering convenience and cost savings compared to static IPs.

Benefits

As you can see DDNS is a very convenient solution, and it has different advantages, but the main ones are the following:

Accessibility – You will be able to access your website or server, easily, without being worried. The IP will change, but this won’t stop any of your activities.

Practicality – You don’t need a network administrator to check and reconfigure your settings.

Economic – DDNS makes it cheaper; you won’t have IP address conflict in case you have many addresses, and they are used at the same time.

There are many other advantages, and you are probably thinking about how to start using DDNS. Luckily for you, it is relatively easy to switch to it. You can get a free DDNS service from ClouDNS. We provide it with all our plans, including the entirely free one. Just sign up for a new free account  and start using it.

Configuring Dynamic DNS

With each A and AAAA record, we provide a unique URL, so-called DynURL, when you are using our Dynamic DNS.
You can read the following step by step explanations on how to configure it, depending on your operating system down below.

First for Windows users, regardless of the version you have on your device:

• Dynamic DNS for Windows

Or watch the video tutorial:

If you are a MacOS or Linux user or another type of NIX system, you can follow these instructions:

• Dynamic DNS for Linux, Mac and all types of *NIX systems

Or watch the video tutorial:

If you have multiple Internet providers:

• Dynamic DNS for Linux, Mac and all types of *NIX systems with multiple network interfaces (Internet providers)

And even if you are using the data solutions of Synology, you can still benefit from the DDNS

• DDNS for Synology

With the help of ClouDNS, you can start using DDNS right away. This can help your business or personal project.

So what are you waiting for, start using it today!

The challenge without DDNS

Imagine owning a server that’s pivotal for your business operations. While internally connected, it communicates externally via a Network Address Translation router. Without DDNS:

1. Every time your external IP changes, you risk downtime or inaccessibility.
2. Manual updates are tedious and can lead to errors or oversights.
3. Business operations relying on constant server access might face disruptions.

Conclusion

In a digital era where consistency is king, DDNS stands out as a beacon, ensuring that shifting IP addresses don’t impede server access. As businesses increasingly rely on online operations, services like DDNS aren’t just conveniences—they’re necessities.

The post What is DDNS? How does it work and how to setup DDNS? appeared first on ClouDNS Blog.

Most of the companies that aim at a steady, long-term growth, are inevitably trying to provide a secure and high-performance online experience for their clients. One of the essential means of these efforts is providing the website, online store, or e-commerce with a reliable DNS hosting.

DNS might sound like rocket science for those who are not at all aware of IT matters, but it can be explained pretty straightforward. Put simply, this is a type of “translating” system that modifies domain names into IP addresses or turning “human” language into “computer” language. As you can imagine, there are various ways of executing this process, some of which are more intelligent and reliable than others.

Choosing a trustworthy DNS partner is a matter of great importance since a fast DNS service can significantly enhance website speed, neutralize performance issues, grant additional security, reduce bounce rates, and thus inevitably boost the company’s ROI.

Here is where ClouDNS steps in

to provide a superior set of various last-generation DNS services, suitable for every need, every purpose, and every budget. 

ClouDNS is a provider of global Managed DNS services, implementing the industry’s most sophisticated cloud service architecture to ensure maximum DNS speed and DNS redundancy. The company is found back in 2010 and manages to achieve an ever-bustling growth until this day when they provide services in more than 62,000 cities, 186 countries, and 6 continents. In 2019 ClouDNS manages hundreds of thousands of domains, receiving more than 2 billion queries per day.

As every entrepreneur is painfully aware of, results never materialize out of thin air – they come as a result of hard work, exceptional services, and flawless customer satisfaction rates. How do ClouDNS ensure those fundamental prerequisites of success? Let’s dig a bit deeper and find out.

How does ClouDNS manage to meet all customers’ needs with Anycast DNS & additional perks?

ClouDNS strives to provide the most solid DNS services on the planet in matters of price, performance, and general ROI expectancy. This is an audacious goal that requires no less than having the ultimate service network, technological base, and customer service. What are the advantages that ClouDNS’ clients are continually taking advantage of?

• Cloud-based infrastructure is the ultimate digital resolution that ensures maximum speed, no hardware-related bugs, and problems, no lags in performance, and zero chance of ever losing a piece of essential data.
• Anycast technology is what stands behind each of ClouDNS’s services. It utilizes the different locations that receive queries for the network and distributes them geographically by using the shortest path available to a particular DNS server. The result is a massive boost in speed, efficiency, and reliability of the domain.

• Secondary DNS is a technology that distributes traffic between two providers and thus guarantees the highest possible level of security. It manages to keep a website up, even when an unexpected crash occurs in the primary DNS provider. It’s a matter of critical importance for every considerate business owner. 
• 24/7 service and support guarantee adequate care for the customer through day and night, every single day of the year. ClouDNS’s teams are there for their clients via the built-in online chat and support e-mail – with no excuses and no exceptions.
• Up to 10,000%, the uptime Service Level Agreement (SLA) is another way to ensure a flawless value for the client. It means that for every single minute downtime, ClouDNS extends the customer’s account with a hundred.
• A free 30-day trial is available for all plans offered by ClouDNS. Anyone is welcome to test how does the plan work for them, to personally acknowledge its perks, and receive free 24/7 guidance and support throughout the entire process.

Packed with this fantastic set of opportunities, ClouDNS ensures a mesmerizing combination of last-generation digital DNS services, thus providing the final customer with the chance to develop their business without ever again having to worry about website domain functionality.

Which ClouDNS plan to choose according to your needs – Free DNS, Premium DNS, and more

ClouDNS offers four different subscription plans, formulated to give a personalized solution to various customer and business objectives. What are those plans, and what are their advantages; what do they include, and which of them is most suitable for your individual business goals?

Free DNS

It’s a zero budget DNS solution with plenty of elements that guarantee a reasonable level of reliability for its purposes. The plan incorporates 4 Unicast DNS servers in 1 DNS zone, 50 DNS records, a limit of 500,000 DNS queries per month, 1 mail forward, and 24/7 live chat support. 

The Free DNS plan is fitting for personal blogs, low-budget startups, small or local business owners, business card websites, and generally every type of online initiatives that aren’t expecting a hardcore multinational traffic. It ensures a stable domain with satisfying speed and capacities tailored to the needs of the enterprise. Of course, once your company starts expanding, you can always upgrade to a more suitable ClouDNS plan.

Premium DNS

It’s a low-budget DNS solution, which is an upgraded version of the Free DNS package, with added components divided into S, M, and L Premium options. Premium DNS plans include 8 DNS servers and 50+ Anycast DNS locations, along with different numbers of DNS zones, DNS records, mail forwards, web redirects and monitoring checks, according to the chosen plan. 

Premium DNS plans are an ideal resolution for middle-range and developing business websites, online stores, and e-commerce platforms that need to cope with traffic from multiple geolocations. If you find yourself somewhere on the long path between local and global, subscribing to a Premium DNS plan can help you manage the speed of your domain, and simultaneously deliver a flawless experience to users from different zones.

DDoS Protected DNS

It’s bringing up the heavy artillery of domain security and protection. DDoS Protected S, M and L Plans are keeping the metrics of the Premium DNS package, but are providing 4 DDoS Protected DNS instead of 4 unprotected ones.  

DDoS attacks are frequent and severe enough to do much damage to growing or leading business entrepreneurs. Every minute of downtime can cost your business a small fortune, depending on user activity. That’s why using a DDoS Protected DNS is a must for every big E-commerce, service provider, entertainment media, and even social institution. 

GeoDNS

It comes in a Start, Professional, and Business package, and provides a highly accurate geolocation load balance. It segments the traffic and connects users with the closest server available. Different-sized plans combine 4 Anycast GeoDNS servers and 50+ Anycast DNS locations, along with a variable number of DNS zones, DNS records, and monthly DNS queries to answer the particular requirements of the users.

GeoDNS provides the most extraordinary speed possible, thus reducing bounce rates, improving search engine ranking, and rocketing online user experience to the next level. It is suitable for basically any individual, business, entrepreneurship, or institution that strives to provide a global, first-class user experience on their website.

And there is even more…

Other professional features and DNS services on offer by ClouDNS involve:

• Primary, Secondary, and Reverse DNS
• Web & E-mail Forwarding
• Domain parking
• DNSSEC
• HTTP API Access
• DNS statistics
• Free zones migration & more

The team of ClouDNS is always there to answer your questions, advise you on your case, provide essential resources, and propose a personalized solution. All you need to do is reach out and let them do the magic!

The post ClouDNS – DNS services to help your business growth appeared first on ClouDNS Blog.

Who can join this reselling program?

Many can benefit from it, but mostly it can add extra value to your hosting or domain business. You can seamlessly integrate our DNS services to your product portfolio and resell DNS. Thanks to the API that we provide, every business function is easily accessible and fully flexible.

Resell DNS services of the following:

Through our platform, you can resell three types of services: Premium DNS, DDoS Protected DNS and GeoDNS and the different monthly subscriptions that we have.
Premium DNS with unlimited DNS records and DNS queries per month, 8 DNS servers around the world, 50+ Anycast locations, up to 400 DNS zones and up to 1,000 mail forwards
https://www.cloudns.net/premium/

DDoS Protected DNS with unlimited DNS records and DNS queries per month, 4 DDoS Protected DNS servers around the world, 50+ Anycast locations, up to 400 DNS zones and up to 1,000 mail forwards and 10 000% Uptime Guarantee.
https://www.cloudns.net/ddos-protected-plans/

GeoDNS with up to 10 DNS zones, up to 10 000 Records and 1 000 000 000 DNS queries per month
You can check the full descriptions of the services here
https://www.cloudns.net/geodns/

Easy to Integrate

Another advantage is the secure connection over HTTPS. It is the secure version of the HTTP protocol that sends data between the browser and the website. The data will be private and encrypted.

HTTP vs HTTPS

Our interface lets you use all the management and selling functionalities in a very intuitive way. Every menu will be where you think it will be.
In case of a problem, you can contact our dedicated team of API specialist that will help you find the solution to your problem in no time.
About the selling functionalities, we assure you that we support via ticket system. This will ease your management.

Completely Platform Independent

Resell DNS no matter what platform  do you use. This means that you can use it under whatever operating system you have – Windows, OSX, Linux, ChromeOS or another. The browser is also not an issue; we work with standards compliant HTTP API. And to be truly platform independent, you can still program in any programing language that you like.

Secure and Scalable

We have taken different measures to protect our system and to provide a safe experience to all of you, our customers. In addition to the HTTPS protocol that we use, we protect from API abuses and DDoS Attacks; we have an advanced monitoring system to check for threats and extra level of protection, a restricted access through whitelisted IPs. Only the approved IPs have access.

Suggested page: Explanation of Web (HTTP/HTTPS) monitoring

For your convenience, you can use our WHMCS module https://www.cloudns.net/whmcs-module/.

Through it, you easily offer ClouDNS services to your clients. It supports versions 5, 6 and 7. The module is open source, and it is entirely free and customizable.

ClouDNS makes it easy for you and provides you a control panel for all your needs. You can manage and check all of your activities on it. https://panel.cloudns.net

How to start our DNS resell Program?

You are already thinking of how to add ClouDNS services to your portfolio and increase the value for your clients. Luckily it is effortless to start our reselling program.
Just click this link https://www.cloudns.net/resellers-api/, fill your data, choose the service you would like to resell and wait until our team gets back to you.
Your request will be quickly reviewed, and you will start benefit from the reselling program in no time.

The post How to resell DNS services? Add DNS to your product portfolio. appeared first on ClouDNS Blog.