Best DynDNS alternative: FreeDNS.afraid.org

[LeoNeeson]

Many users of HFS have asked in the past (on this forum), what is the best alternative to DynDNS, and from my own experience, nothing beats FreeDNS.afraid.org
(and this is NOT an advertisement, since I'm not getting paid for commenting this).

His owner (Joshua Anderson) is very friendly, and his services are trustworthy (he has more than 20 years of experience, working online since 2001). You can use it for free or by paying only $5 USD/monthly ($60/yr). Although I'm not a Premium member of them (since I currently can't afford it), I highly recommend it to anyone here, and I can't say enough good things about this service.

You can use your own domain (to delegate your DNS to them) and start using it to self-host content (for example, using HFS as server); or by choosing a subdomain from any of their 41,950 domains, which half of them, are only available if you are a paid customer (by getting a Premium Membership). But if your budget is tight, you can use a subdomain, and start using it for free, for as long as you want.

If you need any help to configure and use it with HFS, just leave a message here, and I will try my best to help you.

Cheers,
Leo.-

[TekWiz]

Thank you, I agree, I've been using afraid for many, many years now. It's a shame it's not more widely supported. Doing the auto updates in windows can be a bit tricky as a simple updater hasn't been updated for years... But can be done with a scheduled script easily. I wonder, can HFS update it automatically?

[LeoNeeson]

I wonder, can HFS update it automatically?

Yes, it's easy, but read a very important note at the end...

1. Login to your FreeDNS.Afraid.org account and go to "Dynamic DNS".

2. Copy the link from "Direct URL" for the domain you want to update.
     

3. From that link, change "https://" to "http://" (removing the 's'),
   since HFS can't handle SSL connections (unless you are using v2.4 RC7).

Link example:

Code: [Select]

http://freedns.afraid.org/dynamic/update.php?xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
4. In HFS, press F5 (if you are not already in 'Expert mode'), and go to...
   'Menu' > 'Dynamic DNS updater' > 'Custom...' and paste there the link.

5. It's all ready. Enjoy!


NOTE: My recommendation for FreeDNS.Afraid.org remains, but I currently do not recommend to use HFS to do the 'DNS update' (as a 'Dynamic DNS client'). It can be used along HFS, but it's better not within it. This is because, no matter what DynDNS service you do use, I've noticed that HFS it's not very reliable for this task (I've found a small bug when using the 'Custom' option, and although it seems to work, I can't guarantee it will always function). What kind of bug? HFS is -always- updating the DNS even if is not necessary, without checking first if the IP of the hostname has changed or not, and this leads to this "ERROR: Address 123.xxx.xxx.xxx has not changed." For casual use, it could work fine, but for use on as a permanent server, it's much better to use another DDNS client to update the IP.

[rejetto]

some modems have ddns updater feature. That may be the best option