DynDyns - Free No More

[imilne]

Yep, having openvpn on the router is great. I can surf securely from anywhere (not least work where they have an annoying web filter blocking half the stuff I want to read these days), and also easily wake-on-lan any home machine too if I want to check on something. My ISP can go months (if not years) before changing my IP, but it's good to know - via afraid.org rather than ddns - that my domain will always be reachable. It ties in well with opendns and their dnscrypt service too.

I've got an Asus RT-N66U running TomatoUSB, and it's been bloody great. Best router I've ever had and well worth its (small) price premium over any of the usual tat from netgear et al.

Iain

[HarryH3]

I've got an Asus RT-N66U running TomatoUSB, and it's been bloody great. Best router I've ever had and well worth its (small) price premium over any of the usual tat from netgear et al.

Iain

Awesome router. I have the same, only running Shibby's Tomato AIO.

[imilne]

It's shibby's I'm using.

Iain

[bgowland]

Interesting. As I said I was just curious. I have very simple and specific needs which only require a couple of ports open on my broadband router and I don't often connect in from outside these days anyway. I only really need access to npvr/ndroid - in the past I ran ftp and web services for accessing various documents etc but with the large amount of cloud storage I have now I just upload whatever I need.

The comment from martint123 was interesting - I'd already started thinking about how these free DNS services work and obviously sending something out from your LAN will have the external IP address somewhere in it. Now I just need to work out a good way to automate it transparently.

Cheers,
Brian

[HarryH3]

Now I just need to work out a good way to automate it transparently.

Cheers,
Brian

The DDNS services offer a client you can leave running on an always on PC. The client will do the magic for you. Some routers offer the client as part of their firmware (the stock ASUS firmware on their newer routers has it and I think all of the third-party firmwares have it).

[mulletback]

I run Shibby Tomato on my E1200 router - it gives me a DDNS client (I use a DynDNS paid service) and a VPN server (and client, but I have little use for that). I can get into my lan from the road and fiddle with NPVR etc.

[bgowland]

The DDNS services offer a client you can leave running on an always on PC. The client will do the magic for you.

Yes, I had that running on my Win XP npvr server but I let my DynDns registration lapse. As I'm not usually away from home for more than a day or two I just check the IP address before leaving and hope it doesn't change while I'm away.

Some routers offer the client as part of their firmware (the stock ASUS firmware on their newer routers has it and I think all of the third-party firmwares have it).

Unfortunately I think I'm pretty much tied into the router supplied by my cable company (it's Netgear "tat" as Iain called it but it's branded / customised for the cable company).

Cheers,
Brian

[imilne]

Unfortunately I think I'm pretty much tied into the router supplied by my cable company (it's Netgear "tat" as Iain called it but it's branded / customised for the cable company).

Who are you with? You mention cable, which suggests Virgin, and their superhubs are able to run in 'modem mode' which just turns them into (even) dumber boxes that then hand over all the hard work to a real router of your choice. The only downside is the slightly elevated running costs, as you've now got two devices plugged in when one should have been enough.

If it's BT fibre I haven't a clue, but I'd hope any of the normal ADSL options (homehubs etc) would surely allow 3rd party routers.

Iain

[bgowland]

Who are you with? You mention cable, which suggests Virgin, and their superhubs are able to run in 'modem mode' which just turns them into (even) dumber boxes that then hand over all the hard work to a real router of your choice.

Yep Virgin and it is a super hub but I'm not sure I can justify a second router for what I need.

It occurs to me though my RPi runs 24/7 and I've got an idea which could work using that and my domain web server.

Cheers,
Brian

[jksmurf]

I run Merlin builds on my Asus RT-AC66U, and the built-in asuscom.com DDNS service. Simple, works.
Used to run Shibby but don't need all the bells and whistles. Used to run Tomato on my Linksys WRT54G v1.1 too, still have it on my WRT54GS.