DynDNS - Free Dynamic DNS Service

Do you have an IP camera at home? How do you access the camera from other location (outside of your home)? Oh, you have static IP, lucky you. Most of the people have dynamic IP from the Internet service provider like Road Runner, which mean at determined hours or days the IP will change. For my house it seems to change every 5-7 days. So, what does this have to do with IP camera? A lot; what is the point of having an IP camera, if you can't access it wherever you are with Internet connection. If you have static IP, yes there is no issue, but it comes with higher monthly cost for leasing the static IP. For the rest of us, we have DynDNS option. The only drawback about DynDNS is that you have to download a small program from DynDNS that update your IP with DNS name you choose, so it means that you have to have one of your computer on all the time to update the DNS.

Anyway, to explain DynDNS, it is a FREE service provided by DynDNS, of course there are paid services too. The only thing you need to do is go to their site and register and select a DNS name and select the extension DynDNS offer. I believe you can get up to five DNS name. Once that is done, and the software is running on your computer, it will update your IP with the DNS name so that all you need to do is type in the URL from anywhere you have an Internet connection and should be able to connect to your IP camera (You may need to do some router configuration, if a router is used at home). I use this service whenever I go on vacation or business trip to monitor my house. You may feel uncomfortable about leaving your computer on but most of the time I'm betting you leave your computer on, of course there are those people who shut down there computer every time they are done using it. I use to be like that, thinking it will save electricity but I didn’t notice a change, unless you have a powerhouse computer constantly processing files like a server. This is just an example and I'm sure there are many different ways to use this service, especially if you are running a server at home. All instruction is provided on the website and for your home router, information should be with your router instruction. Have fun.

Excerpt from http://www.dyndns.com/services/dns/dyndns/

Dynamic DNS Free (DDNS) allows you to create a hostname that points to your home or office IP address, providing an easy-to-remember URL for quick access. We also provide an update mechanism which makes the hostname work with your dynamic IP address. We continue to offer this service free to the Internet community as we have done so for nearly 10 years.

Capabilities and Features
•Get five (5) hostnames in 88 available domains for free.
•Forward web requests or mark host offline for maintenance or downtime.
•Configure MX records for flexible mail routing.
•Update host using ddns update clients for a wide variety of platforms.
•Modify DNS TTL values for fast propagation or reliable static IP caching.
•Deliver your DNS records to 5 DNS servers in 5 tier-1 datacenters around the globe.
•Query volume up to 648,000 queries/month