I’m new to self-hosting. All I did so far was install Ubuntu Server, enable SSH and tried setting up DuckDNS, which I could not set up automatic update of my IP following the documentation, neither updating manually through the website, which even though seems to be changed, when I ssh the domain, I get the initial IP
Anyone using DuckDNS? Is it working properly for you guys? Did I just mess something up?
What other DDNS providers would you recommend me?
You must log in or register to comment.
I’ve been using desec.io since it’s european, non profit and privacy oriented. Bring your own domain though. Works well, although my caddy plugin has problems getting certs sometimes. My pangolin instance never has any issues getting certs so might be caddy desec plugin specific.
DuckDNS has long enough latency (over 2000ms) where Google Assistant can’t connect. I moved to FreeDDNS and my Home Assistant issues went away.
i am using https://freedns.afraid.org/ for over a decade now and problems occured less than 5 times over that period. all others i ever tried were worse over time.
This is a great question that is relevant for me this week. Been trying to set up a wireguard vpn and found I need a DDNS. Lots of good answers to look into in the comments. Thanks everyone.
My Domain registrar has a reverse DNS service included.
DuckDNS was resolving slow as hell for me so I ended up picking up a cheap domain from Porkbun, they got API access and it seems most of the ddns tools support them too
Any DNS provider is good if they offer an API that lets you use PUT to modify DNS records. You can make a small bash script and crontab it. I also used DuckDNS for a while, and it worked fine.
I’m currently using https://ipv64.net/
Been using ddnss.de before that for some time, but they had some outages. No problems with ipv64 so far.
I ended up using Dynv6, great and simple serivce does exactly what I need. Made in Germany.
Me too. Draytek Router automatically updates the IP. Set it up once and it is working since 2-3 years (don’t exactly rember when I set it up).
I am using DuckDNS and it’s working perfectly for me. I use the DynDNS feature of my Fritz!Box to update my DuckDNS-IP. The documentation on their website is spot-on for me, even for my IPv6 and I never had any issues with DuckDNS.
What I like most about the service is the possibility to use subdomains like my-service.my-username.duckdns.org. I don’t know whether this is a commong feature or not.
When you had problems updating your IP Adresse did you consider that DNS information takes some time to propagate through the internet? I think it is not guaranteed that you can access a recently changed domain.
How did you test your DuckDNS entries?
I used nsupdate for years and it worked just fine. I remember it being down, one time only, for like five minutes. For a project that depends entirely on donations, the service and availability they provide are just awesome.
DuckDNS had been unreliable when I used it, but it’s been a while. I swapped over to desec.io but their signups aren’t always open. Can highly recommend them though, and they offer many paths to update the IP, including DynDNS(2) protocol or just ddclient.
Also works with certbot for Let’s encrypt certificates using dns challenge.
Same. I have a router with OPNsense. In the “Dynamic DNS” section I create a “Custom” service with the DynDNS2 protocol. I type in
update.dedyn.ioas the server address. You need to also get an api key from the desec.io web panel that you input into the username and password fields.Now everytime the router’s WAN ip changes it automatically edits the DNS zone. So instead of going “your server -> DDNS provider -> DNS CNAME record” it’s just “your server -> DNS A record”
I also have a separate token for my web proxy (traefik) so that it can edit the DNS records to get let’s encrypt certificates through dns challenge as you describe.
As for the desec signups in my case one DNS zone was no problem, but for a second one I needed to e-mail them:
Hello, would it be possible for my newly created account to get one more domain on the account please? I have two personal domains and it would be great if I could keep them both under deSEC
Hi [me], Sure! The limit is mostly there to remind users to enable DNSSEC, but it looks like you’re already doing that (at your old provider).
They asked me to (voluntarily) donate, which I did too.
I put the curl command to update my duckdns IP in cron about 13 years ago, and have never needed to touch it once.
It’s just worked for me
This. Never had an issue.
Oh wow, me too. And I just checked and it’s still there, still works. The token is 10 years old.
I did this too, and my log always gets an OK. But the IP never changes.
The ip shouldnt change unless the server is down for a period of time and the ip is dynamic.
If it is returning OK then it sounds like duckdns is working as intended
I have been using duckdns for a few years without issues. It should be simple enough , just set up a cron job with your details as listed on their site where you configure it. This keeps your dns entry up to date.
I used to just use a script with
cronto update Cloudflare DNS records but these days I don’t screw around with exposing anything to the public internet directly, I just use Tailscale.Is there a difference between using Tailscale and Wireguard? I already have a Wireguard setup and want to know what benefits it has over Wireguard.
They’re similar but mainly Tailscale arranges WireGuard tunnels between peers. There are tons of useful features around that functionality like being able to route specific traffic through specific hosts (“nodes” using “app connectors”); it’s even better at finding a way out of hostile networks using relays.
Just as an example I typically use my VPS as an “exit node” so that all my traffic routes through it (which does a ton of tunnel hopping through commercial VPNs) while my wife isn’t into that at all, but both of us have Tailscale on our devices so when either of us accesses Home Assistant it’s routed directly to the host hosting it.
Also MagicDNS is great.
