VF Ultra Hub - DDNS setup help please

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kiwifidget

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#248851 12-Apr-2019 19:32

Hello,

I have noticed lately that my VF IP address has been changing every few days, and this stuffs up some network devices at home.

I setup DuckDNS and entered the credentials in my VF Ultra HUb router quite some time ago, which I thought was supposed to stop an ever changing ISP-IP from being a problem.

Have I misunderstood the purpose of the DDNS settings in the router?

Thank you.

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fe31nz

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#2216226 12-Apr-2019 23:29

A DDNS setup does nothing to prevent the changing IP addresses. What it does is allow you to use a DNS name instead of an IP address. The IP address associated with the DNS name gets changed every time the router sees a new IP address. How well that works depends on the device or software. Some things will do a new DNS lookup every time they reconnect. Those should work with DDNS. Others only do a DNS lookup when they are started for the first time, so they will not find out about a changed IP address until they are restarted.

What you need to find out is why you are getting changing IP addresses so frequently. It should only happen when your router has to reconnect to the VF network for some reason, and the normal reasons are the VF did some maintenance overnight and that caused a disconnection, or your connection is flaky and keeps dropping by itself. If it is the latter, you should be complaining to VF and getting them to fix it. Or you could change to a better ISP. For example, on 2Degrees, if your router reconnects, their network will give it back the same IP address if it is still available. Generally it takes a pretty long disconnection for the old IP address to not be available.

What sort of connection to VF do you have? ADSL, VDSL, cable/FibreX (or whatever they are calling it now), or UFB fibre?

kiwifidget

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#2216266 13-Apr-2019 07:58

Thank for the response @fe31nz .

I have a fibre connection. I do understand that DDNS wont stop the IP from changing, but is supposed to mitigate the effects of it changing.

When the IP changes, I notice that the settings at DuckDNS do not get updated automatically with the new IP. I have to login to DuckDNS and update it myself. No biggie if I am home, but if I am away I can't find out my new IP to make the change. I thought the router was supposed to do this, otherwise why bother having the feature at all.

I was hoping someone here was successfully using the DDNS settings in their VF Ultra Hub and how they managed to get it working.

I am not averse to changing from DuckDNS if someone can tell me the hub works better with a different DDNS provider.

It would be great it I could get the router to do it, rather than set up another device to handle it.

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Spyware

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#2216306 13-Apr-2019 08:23

Some devices only do the update on power cycle, reboot. Makes no sense but can be the case. Maybe test next time.

kiwifidget

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#2216365 13-Apr-2019 10:10

@spyware , thank you.

Test by rebooting the router and seeing if DuckDNS updates?

Or is there another test you are suggesting?

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Spyware

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#2216376 13-Apr-2019 10:48

Yes, reboot router. Maybe run ddclient on a RPi, this does work.

cyril7

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#2216388 13-Apr-2019 11:11

You can run ddns clients on virtually anything inside your network, are there any 24/7 machines, ie win, nix in the network that could do this trivial task?

Cyril

kiwifidget

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#2216582 13-Apr-2019 16:57

I do have one of those RPi doodahs. Its the device I need DDNS for, it runs a website that I access remotely.

If I setup a DDNS client on it, so it can access itself, will that not create a rift in the time space continuum and end all life in the universe as we know it??

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cyril7

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#2216606 13-Apr-2019 18:02

That Rpi sounds ideal, just because you add ddns to it the world will not end and the candle in the hand of the chap walking in front of your car will not extinguish.

Ddns simply polls out to a selected DNS service every x while, the source address is obviously seen by that service, your DNS records with that service update accordingly. So now to find your home connection simply use the attached service URL.

Cyril