Update OpenDNS without updater client
I just installed a wireless mesh network which sits behind my ISP modem/router. None of the devices on my network have direct access to the ISP router so the Windows updater client will not use the correct IP address. The router from my ISP does support DDNS, but there are no options for OpenDNS, DNS-0-Matic or "custom". Is there another way to update OpenDNS when my WAN IP address changes?
Internet -> ISP router (wireless turned off) -> Wireless Mesh router -> all Desktops, laptops, and other devices on the network.
OpenDNS is configured on the mesh router. Would it make any difference if I moved that config to the ISP router?
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"None of the devices on my network have direct access to the ISP router so the Windows updater client will not use the correct IP address. "
Your devices do not need to have direct access to the ISP router, and the Updater using a wrong IP address is rather a rumor. This is how the Updater identifies your public IP address:
nslookup myip.opendns.com.
And this is the IP addess which must be registered at https://dashboard.opendns.com/settings/
"Is there another way to update OpenDNS when my WAN IP address changes?"
Many ways, beside the router which is not possible in your case, you can check devices like NAS, DVR, IP cameras if they have a built-in DDNS update client supporting one of OpenDNS, DNS-O-Matic or "user defined". Also using another software on computers like Marc's Updater is an option. These all use a method like checking http://myip.dnsomatic.com/ to get your public IP address.
You can also manually update at https://dashboard.opendns.com/settings/ or by visiting this URL with a browser:
https://updates.opendns.com/nic/update?hostname=NetworkLabel
But manual updates are not ideal, because you may not know when your ISP changes your IP address.
"OpenDNS is configured on the mesh router. Would it make any difference if I moved that config to the ISP router?"
Does it work at all yet? http://welcome.opendns.com/
It doesn't matter where you configure the OpenDNS resolver addresses as long as it works, i.e. as long as your DNS traffic goes to OpenDNS. -
Thanks for the reply! When I first installed the updater it was not reporting the correct IP address and it gave me warning that it the address it was getting and the address from OpenDNS did not match. In fact, the address being reported by the updater was changing every half second! Later, I closed the updater and reopened it and now it seems to be working correctly and it successful sent an update to DNS-O-Matic which is configured to update OpenDNS. Thanks again for your time.
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Something must have been wrong with your network settings at this time...
If you are again facing issues, copy & paste the complete plain text output of the following diagnostic commands to here:
nslookup -type=txt debug.opendns.com.
nslookup whoami.akamai.net.
netsh interface ipv4 show config -
For anybody looking to keep their account up to date without a client as such, you can use the following command:
curl --user username:password https://updates.opendns.com/nic/update?hostname=<Network name>
I've set this up as a cron job on my Linux box which stays on my network, so I no longer have the problem of forgetting to quit the updater client when I use my Macbook away from my network. To add to which, it seems like the Mac Updater client is not optimised for macOS Mojave.
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