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Dynamic IP - Self hosting

Im sure this has been asked before i juat can’t find where it has been - Maybe need to work on how to search Lemmy better. But…

Id like to eventually self host some sevices that require external access. While I have IpV6 addresses my IPV4 is dynamic.

Whats the best free way to be able to point some domains/ subdomains I have to my external dynamic IP and keep it updated. Im running OpenWrt on my router. - So possibly should be posting there.

Free Dyndns services seem to be a bit crap. Do I need to pay for a VPS? (seems to defeat the point of self hosting)

abeorch OP ,

Wow thanks everyone. I think I need to take another look at some of the DynDNS provides and digest all your great feedback.

Id like to go beyond personal self hosting stuff and maybe run some stuff that requires Federation. Im just thinking at the moment.

MehBlah ,

I use afraid.org to keep my dynamic dns pointed at my routers ip. With afraid.org dns you only need a curl statement scheduled on the opendns router to keep the dynamic ip updated.

traches ,

If you can avoid it, don’t open ports in your firewall, don’t publish your home IP address, and keep everything behind a VPN. If only you and your family will be using these services, go with Tailscale or one of its competitors. Otherwise, VPS or cloudflare tunnel/competitor.

hendrik ,

I think you got enough recommendations for several tunneling solutions.

Apart from that (and free DynDNS) you could also use a regular paid DNS provider. Some of them also offer DynDNS or an API. I think I saw some regular providers in the list of my DynDNS client on my router, next to the super cheap or free ones.

TCB13 ,
@TCB13@lemmy.world avatar

Free Dyndns services seem to be a bit crap

Why do you say that? freedns.afraid.org and www.duckdns.org are very solid and if you’re looking for something more corporate even Cloudflare offers that service for free.

JRaccoon ,
@JRaccoon@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

I’ve been using No-IP free plan for years without issues. Inputted the credentials to my routers DDNS client and then basically forgot about it. Free users need to confirm their account once a month via email but that’s just one click.

If your domain registrar happens to have an API to update DNS entries, you could implement DDNS yourself by writing a simple automated script to check the external IP (e.g. via ipify.org) and if it’s changed from the last check then call the API to update the DNS entries.

TCB13 ,
@TCB13@lemmy.world avatar

No-IP

Don’t recommend that. There are plenty of better alternatives such as freedns.afraid.org and www.duckdns.org that aren’t run by predatory companies that may pull the plug like DynDNS did.

JRaccoon ,
@JRaccoon@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

Sure. I’m not recommending anything, just stating what has worked for me. For simple use cases, I think most of the DDNS services are pretty much the same anyway and it’s easy to switch to an another one if one stops working for some reason.

anzo ,

There are two options, one is tunneling (e.g. tailscale, cloudfare tunnels, or a VPS either with special software or plain old SSH port forward constant connection). The other option, the most popular answer (I think, influenced by how yoy asked) is Dynamic DNS or DynDNS (e.g. duck, hurricane, freedns, etc.) this second one is like the classic solution.

cizra ,

How often does your IP actually change? Mine changes so rarely (during extended power outages, say) that I am able to just update my IP manually when it does.

I even used to run my own authoritative DNS server at home (the one offered by my registrar isn’t configurable enough, think SRV and TXT records) - for that, I have a web UI at my registrar to set the IP addresses of the DNS server.

phanto ,

I have dyndns, have since they were 10$ a year, and I’ve gradually realized that my ISP changes my IP on average less than once a year…

IsoKiero ,

You can pay for dyndns service which should be more reliable than free ones. I don’t have any experience with those, so I can’t give any recommendations. What I’m running is that I use few of the free ones which are updated either from my router or from a linux VM and I’ve just pointed few easy to remember CNAME records from my own domain to those dynamic addresses. It’s not the best thing in the world, but my dynamic IP tends to be pretty static as it usually changes only when my own hardware is down for a longer period of time (few hours or so, so a longer power outage or a hardware maintenance gone wrong).

cmnybo ,

FreeDNS works pretty well as long as you don’t need more than 5 DNS records.

infeeeee ,

Other free services I had good experiences with:

KeepFlying ,

Many registrars let you buy a domain and set up dynamic DNS for it within their system so you can own a domain and get dyndns on it.

Otherwise you could accomplish it with a VPS but you’d only need the smallest one available because it would just need to run nginx to forward to your home ip (and a small tool to update that IP when it changes). So you could probably get something for less than $5/mo.

Decronym Bot , (edited )

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:

Fewer Letters More Letters
DNS Domain Name Service/System
HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol, the Web
IP Internet Protocol
SSH Secure Shell for remote terminal access
VPN Virtual Private Network
VPS Virtual Private Server (opposed to shared hosting)
nginx Popular HTTP server

6 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 10 acronyms.

[Thread for this sub, first seen 27th Jul 2024, 19:35] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

revv ,

You can get super cheap VPSs and use them just as a reverse proxy (with access via VPN). I host 11 servers using one single-core VPS as a reverse proxy. All data resides on premises, in house. I pay 10/yr for VPS. It definitely does not defeat the purpose.

Wolfwood1 ,

Self hosting doesn’t mean you should host everything yourself at home, using a VPS you manage (so the data inside it is still yours) is also a viable option for selfhosting. I myself host some services at home and a few others in a VPS.

As for Dyndns, I’ve used a few providers over the years. DuckDNS is the one I’ve been using for 5 years or so and it’s not failed me once. Pretty happy with it.

Maybe you could have a duckdns pointing to your dynamic IP and your domains / subdomains with a CNAME pointing to the dyndns address?

BearOfaTime ,

VPS with a tunnel between it and home services (Wireguard/Tailscale, etc)in my opinion is Best Way as it isolates your home gateway (no open ports, because you make outbound connections to your VPS), and let VPS handle Identity and Access Management

(Or an equivalent isolating architecture).

Alternatively, Tailscale has a Funnel feature which can route public traffic into your Tailscale network. Though I don’t love this approach, it does work for low-volume connections.

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