Some Dynamic DNS info...

Hi Folks.
I have used Dynamic DNS (DDNS) for years as a means of remote access to help a distant friend with many little PC problems rather than having to drive such a long way for what is usually a 10 minute fix.

DDNS has many other uses though - for such things as running a home server, VPS, VPN & some folks even say they use it for their PC PBXes.
It is the best way to map a domain or subdomain to anything with a changing (dynamic) IP address.

A problem I've had (& now finally solved) several times is with 'free' DDNS services either going paid or vanishing with little warning (as just happened with DTDNS).
Yes - there are a bunch of free ones around, but:
It is tiresome having to re-establish this whenever that baloney happens, so I sought a better, more permanent & also very affordable solution - and found a great one.

What I did was to register a new domain for under $6 for 5 years at namecheap - waited for it to become active & added a 2nd 5 years for the same price such that the total cost was very reasonable for 10 years.

Here's the gist of what makes that great for me:
That company offers DDNS at no additional cost.

Then I added a subdomain with a DDNS A record per their very clear instructions after confirming with them that there is no need for that subdomain to point to any hosting for the DDNS to work.
Then I simply adjusted the updater app, etc. & all is well once again.

At the end of the day I now have a reliable connection via DDNS that is under MY control for a very acceptable cost for a very long time.

Better still, I can also point that domain to some hosting or whatever I want & so get even more uses out of it for no additional costs.

I hope this info is useful to other folks here !!

Disclaimer:
I am merely a regular customer of namecheap who enjoys taking advantage of their really good specials & not any sort of affiliate or the like.

Et_Z, thanks for sharing this. I have a feeling it's something I need to know, even if I don't understand it.....

I've sent you a PM.

Why not just use TeamViewer? Free program.

Easy to use.

I use Team Viewer, too-- and it's bailed me out a couple of times in unexpected circumstances. If all one needs is to access a PC remotely for assistance, it's a simple option.

Simple to use but advance. You can hear music or sound files now and send files

Thanks-- I didn't know the capabilities had been expanded.

Much

In the past I've also used T.V. - but no more.
For those who have the newest windows OSes, its windows-centricity is 100% fine.
Neither myself, nor those I assist are within that demographic however.
Most of what I still do crosses OS boundaries & I will not try to explain that any better but to say that I have found far better ways to connect by looking a bit more deeply into what is available for remote access.

Regarding the DDNS situation specifically - it alone is used for connecting to & through a very good firewall server distro via OpenVPN because the destination network is subject to confidentiality concerns.
This works very well - but is rather complicated to create initially - which is why it is not practical for connecting with the other friends that I help out in less critical home situations.

For those folks I use 2 other very simple means of connections which are both free and also do everything needed without any overbearing cross-OS or mandatory matching-version concerns.

My best example is some great friends who just relocated from VT to AZ...
Totally new ISP - and to add a little spice, their hosting provider also just went belly up so that immediate settings changes were needed for email accounts, etc...

No problem !!
Dropped right in to visit both of their PCs & had it done licketty-split.

Still, all-in-all, the beauty of my DDNS setup is that it not only works, but I have what is essentially a 'spare' domain to do with as I wish, a rather nifty bonus IMO.