DtDNS: Introduction
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DtDNS: Introduction | Crude Updater | WhatsMyIP | PHP cURL 1 | PHP cURL 2 | IP Tracker | Plugin 1 | Plugin 2
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| DtDNS and automatic update |
Uniform Server 5.0-Nano and DtDNS
A forum post sparked off this tutorial! It stated DynDNS no longer provide Wildcards for free accounts.
I was surprised, prior to purchasing services such as domain names and dynamic host names users tend to experiment with various server configurations. Wildcards are important in this experimentation especially when exploring Apache’s virtual hosts.
As an alternative, Banana Acid proposed DtDNS. I was going to revisit DynDNS however in the light of the above decided to go with DtDNS.
Uniform Server’s new architecture makes it easy for users that do not have a fixed IP address to integrate an automatic IP updater.
This tutorial looks at components (scripts) required to implement an automatic IP updater.
To follow this tutorial you require a DtDNS account.
DtDNS account
Creating an account at DtDNS is extremely easy.
- Go to DtDNS home
- To the right of log in click Create an Account
There are two pages to fill in, enter the following details:
| Page 1: | ||
| 1) | Desired Username | This name is used for logging into your account |
| 2) | Your Name | Your real name (Internal use) |
| 3) | Desired Password | A password for logging into your account |
| 4) | Confirm Password | As above |
| 5) | E-mail Address | A real active e-mail is required, activation code sent to this e-mail address |
| 6) | Confirm E-mail | As above |
| 7) | Optional | Skip the Optional Information section if you wish fill it in. |
| 8) | Two CAPCHA words | Enter the two CAPCHA words (if these are difficult to read click the new challenge button) |
| Page 2: | ||
| 9) | Username | Enter your Username as entered in 1). |
| 10) | Enter code | Enter code sent to your email. (Note: The email contains a link to page 2 hence you can close the page and wait for the e-mail.) |
Login - Create Hostname
General information:
Will look like this: http://books.effers.com |
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Wild Cards:
After creating a hostname wild cards are enabled by default. This allows you to use a URL such as
http://www.books.effers.com - Note www. is the wild card part this can be anything you like for example:
- http://www.books.effers.com
- http://www-internation.books.effers.com
- http://local.books.effers.com
- http://www.home.books.effers.com
books.effers.com resolves to your IP address you can use the wild card on your server to resolve to different sites.
Create Hostname
To create a new hostname at DtDNS
Login
- Go to | Login page
- Enter Username: as set in step 1)
- Enter Password: as set in step 3)
- My Services page displayed
- Click on Hostnames this opens the Hostname Manager
Create hostname
- Enter a desired Hostname
- From the drop down menu select a Domain
- Click Add Hostname
- Enter the two CAPCHA words (if these are difficult to read click the new challenge button)
- Click Add Hostname button
- This is added to your list of host names
Manage existing hostnames
To manage existing hostnames, simply click the entry in the list for example see below.
| Hostname | Domain | IP Address | Type |
| uni23 | dtdns.net | 89.119.35.45 | Active Dynamic |
| books | effers.com | 87.129.30.174 | Active Dynamic |
Click a hostname link opens its corresponding configuration page. Here you can change various settings, including the IP address.
Note: After adding a new host the IP address is set to your current IP address. You can manually change it on the configuration page or request an IP update see later.
Summary
When I venture into a new area or service all I want to do is use it, please don’t make it difficult! Supply real examples this applies when I have logged in, can I navigate the site to get to the bits I want to twiddle and change.
Now DtDNS was a real pleasure to use, met my above criteria one hundred percent however that CAPCHA thing made my day. On several occasions I used the new challenge button, worked like a charm.
Real objective is an integrated automatic IP updater for Uniform Server however it is worth looking at a crude updater just for testing.