DDNS Updater DDNS updater and no-ip ?

[cpipojoe]

Hi,

sorry but I do not speak German, so will post in English, I hope this is fine.

I am using DDNS updater 1.23-001 on a DS209+II.
I have also a host at no-ip.
I was first using the default settings of the tool (was before 1.23-001) and it seems that no-ip was not getting updates. I was receiving the monthly mail that they would remove my host due to inactivity.
With 1.23-001, I changed the settings to "force update every 1 day". For DDNS updater, it seems to work. The last update was "officially" today 25/12/2012 at 17h31. However, if I look on the no-ip website, their last update is from "2012-12-13 14:34:59 PST", so 12 days ago.

Am I doing something wrong ? Why DDNS updater claims that the update was successful and no-ip is not aware of it ?
In the DDNS entry I only filled provider, hostname, login and password, the rest is "empty".

Thanks a lot for your support.

 

[QTip]

I always receive the monthly mail from no-ip. It seems that a update with the url-api not reseting the update-timestamp on the no-ip site, if the ip not changed. If i set the timestamp directly on their website, the actual timestamp were set. I think i have read about, that this is a bug in the no-ip api. It is even no fault on ddns updater, it only make a force update per url-api, even if the ip not changed. There is always no special command in the url-api to force this.
DDNS updater does not know what ip is set on the site, it only make a update, if the ip changed or if xx days no update are taken. The response from the no-ip is "ok", so this is what DDNS updater shows. All known updater are working this way, it is always a one way api with responses.

 

[cpipojoe]

Hi QTip,

thanks for your feedback. I thought I was making something wrong.
I will just re-activate my no-ip hostname every month when I get the email...

You can close the topic and set it to [Resolved]. Might help other no-ip users too.

Very nice tool this DDNS Updater. Thanks !

 

[QTip]

I'll try a few workarounds and if one turns out to be reliable, i integrate it in ddns updater.

 

[cpipojoe]

Hi QTip,

thanks. I did a quick test with their "PC client updater". I did not recall this behavior from the past but it works the same as DDNS Updater. No change in the timestamp if the IP did not change
There is maybe no solution if no-ip forces it to work like that, but I let you have a look. I personally think this is a wrong setting from no-ip. Even if the IP does not change, I still want to see the time of the latest update to check that the updater still works fine...

Thank you.

 

[cpipojoe]

Hi QTip,

I was thinking how to "go around the no-ip timestamp way of working" and I found a solution.
When you update the IP, you could do it in two steps:
Step 1: update a 'fake IP'. This will force no-ip to change the IP and the timestamp
Step 2: update right after Step 1 with the correct IP. As this one is different that the 'fake IP', no-ip will of course change it back to the old correct IP but at the same time will change the timestamp

Like this you end up with the same IP as before (did not change) but a new timestamp and hopefully no monthly mail anymore.

Let me know what you think of this, in case there is no 'cleaner' way.

 

[QTip]

Something like that I had in mind. I read on a page, that somebody has first send the ip as invers, 1.2.3.4 --> 4.3.2.1. Your idea is also a good workaround, i'll test which one is best to code.

 

[cpipojoe]

Hi QTip,

one remark: there might be a risk by using the inverted IP. Might be that the inverted IP is a real IP, with a real website behind it with an uncontrolled content. In case the Step2 fails, the user would then be redirected to this uncontrolled inverted IP website, not so nice...
So for the 'fake IP', it might be better to use a known IP that returns a known website or does not return anything, like:
173.194.34.16 : www.google.com
74.125.230.248 : www.google.de
8.8.8.8 : google DNS

Up to you to make the choice between the inverted IP vs known IP...

 

[QTip]

the version 1.24 is ready for download

Download / Changelog

Workaround for no-ip:

i use the local ip of the diskstation to update no-ip with a fake ip. After 10 seconds i do a normal update with the old external ip. Output in the log are the following (example):

Feb 16 13:50:26 ddclient[7494]: SUCCESS:  updating xxx.no-ip.org: good: IP address set to 1.2.3.4
Feb 16 13:50:25 ddclient[7494]: INFO:     workaround for no-ip: IP address will now be set back to ip 1.2.3.4
Feb 16 13:50:15 ddclient[7494]: SUCCESS:  updating xxx.no-ip.org: good: IP address set to 192.168.0.1
Feb 16 13:50:14 ddclient[7494]: INFO:     workaround for no-ip: IP address set at first to fake ip 192.168.0.1
Feb 16 13:50:14 ddclient[7494]: WARNING:  forcing update of xxx.no-ip.org from 1.2.3.4 to 1.2.3.4; 23 days since last update on Thu Jan 10 11:54:12 2013.

Hope it works for you too.

 

[cpipojoe]

Hi QTip,

Thanks a lot. It works for me. I can see the "INFO: workaround for no-ip: IP address set at first to fake ip" message in the log file and no-ip has the correct time stamp.
I first though that it did not work as I manually "forced the update" of no-ip (right mouse button) and I got the "nochg: No update required; unnecessary attempts to change to the current address are considered abusive" message and no update on the no-ip website.
I though manually "forcing the update" would "force" it. So I had to wait to the "automatic forced" update (1 day) to see the change.
Might be interesting to be able to update the ip when it is manually forced via the right mouse button...

Anyway, thanks a lot for this update. I think this will be a great competitive added value of DDNS updater when Synology will release 4.2 with the support for Multiple DDNS Hosts. I do not think they will have this no-ip time stamp update

Thanks !!!!

 

[QTip]

I though manually "forcing the update" would "force" it. So I had to wait to the "automatic forced" update (1 day) to see the change.
Might be interesting to be able to update the ip when it is manually forced via the right mouse button...

the version 1.24-001 is ready for download

Download / Changelog

• fixed manually "force update" for no-ip to work with workaround

 

[cpipojoe]

Hi QTip,

it works great !

Thanks a lot !!!