OpenDNS + DDNS: confusion about how to use it.

[acbnet]

Sorry if I'm being dense here, but this is my first encounter with dynamic DNS and I feel like I'm missing – or misunderstanding – a key element.

So far, I've created an OpenDNS account, added a network for a current dynamic IP address, given it a name, and installed the Updater software on my PC. All of this is working fine as far as I can tell, but I thought I'd maybe get a 'friendly' domain name or IP address that never changes and automatically redirects to whatever the current (dynamic) IP address is, so that I can use that to, for example, remote log-in to my home PC. Or is that not how it works? Do I have to always log-in to my OpenDNS account to find my current home IP address and enter that into the connection properties?

[rotblitz]

"I thought I'd maybe get a 'friendly' domain name...  Or is that not how it works?"

Yes, this is not how it works.  OpenDNS just uses the API for Dynamic DNS.  It is not a DDNS service, but a recursive DNS service.  You must register your IP address with OpenDNS if you want to make use of the dashboard's configuration options.  OpenDNS can then associate your DNS queries with your account, else not.

"Do I have to always log-in to my OpenDNS account to find my current home IP address and enter that into the connection properties?"

No, this would be a bad approach!  You chose from the many free DDNS services listed here (not all are free, and not all are DDNS services) to get hostnames you can use to connect to your services from outside:
https://www.dnsomatic.com/wiki/supportedservices
Then you send your DDNS updates through DNS-O-Matic to propagate them to the several services you have, i.e. at least OpenDNS and a DDNS service.

You may have troubles with using the OpenDNS Updater (option "Send Dns-O-Matic Updates") with this.  In this case use Marc's Updater, or use the built-in DDNS update client of your router, NAS, DVR, IP camera, etc.

[acbnet]

Thank you so much for your prompt and informative reply, it's helped me enormously.

I'd already been to the 'supported services' page via DNS-O-Matic and because OpenDNS was listed there that's what I selected. I didn't realize I needed another separate service. Anyway, I've now registered a name with no-ip and added it to my list of services so I can connect with that… great! Now I just need to try and get my home IP address to change to check it's all working as expected.

Thanks again for your help.

[acbnet]

Hmm… I clearly still have something not quite right. I've finally managed to get my home IP address to change and this has propagated to OpenDNS, but No-IP hasn't been updated.

Here is my DNS-O-Matic status and here is my No-IP status. As you can see the IP addresses are different – with No-IP still displaying the old one and DNS-O-Matic showing the No-IP status as still awaiting its first update. Any idea what I'm doing wrong here?

Edit

Okay, so I've been exploring the advanced pages in my router and I've found it has a dnyamic DNS updater built-in. I've entered my No-IP credentials, applied it, and hey presto it's updated the IP address! So I guess the question now is, do I even need any of the OpenDNS & DNS-O-Matic stuff?

[rotblitz]

LOL, now we have the problem: imgur.com is being blocked in my network.  You should have posted the screen shots directly in here (copy & paste).

"Any idea what I'm doing wrong here?"

Yes, I said it already.  Again:
You may have troubles with using the OpenDNS Updater (option "Send Dns-O-Matic Updates") with this.  In this case use Marc's Updater, or use the built-in DDNS update client of your router, NAS, DVR, IP camera, etc.

"the question now is, do I even need any of the OpenDNS & DNS-O-Matic stuff?"

This is something you need to answer yourself.  If you don't want the configurable recursive DNS service of OpenDNS, e.g. to block several domains or categories, or to get more insight into your DNS traffic with their logs and stats, and you have to keep just one service (No-IP) updated with your IP address information, then you do not need OpenDNS and DNS-O-Matic, else you need at least one of them.

[acbnet]

Oh, I thought the OpenDNS Updater was working okay because their service at least seemed to be updating.

Anyway, I've subsequently realized that No-IP's free host names expire every 30 days unless they're re-confirmed – which is a bit of a pain – so I've switched to another free service (Dynu) and installed Marc's Updater. It doesn't list Dynu as a service so I've just used DNS-O-Matic without a hostname and waddyaknow, it works! Whew! :-D

Thank you so much for your help again, it's greatly appreciated.

[rotblitz]

"It doesn't list Dynu as a service"

But it lists DNS-O-Matic.  And this is what you wanted Marc's Updater to do, not Dynu.

"I've just used DNS-O-Matic without a hostname"

Correct, no hostname at all or "all.dnsomatic.com" covers all your services configured at DNS-O-Matic, as documented there.

[acbnet]

Yeah I'd figured that out. I don't really need any of the other OpenDNS stuff so I was thinking I could take it completely out of the equation, saving on complexity if nothing else. But I've got it all working nicely now so I'll probably leave it alone and keep checking Marc's Updater versions to see if Dynu gets added. I see it's been requested already so I dare say it will get it eventually.

Thanks again.

[rotblitz]

Fine that you like Marc's Updater and DNS-O-Matic.  But you could get rid of those if you used the Dynu provided update client.  What prevents you from doing this?
https://www.dynu.com/DynamicDNS/IPUpdateClient

[acbnet]

Nothing much really, apart from a "don't fix what ain't broken" tendency. I guess my current set-up also makes it easier if I ever want to switch to or add another DDNS service later.