cannot get opendns to update dnsomatic services
I have tried hard to make OPENDNS work with DNS-O-MATIC but I could never get the OPENDNS service in DNS-O-MATIC to update the other services I tried, despite reading all the forum posts and having a lot of experience with IP generally over many years. I added afraid.org, dnsexit,com and recently, changeip.org as I read that it didn't work and got fixed.
I see there are quite a few posts from people who are mystified - guess most abandon OPENDNS without posting. Please improve the documentation, I want you guys to stay in business!
For example, I read on the forum that, among the many hidden 'gotchas', you need to use all.dnsomatic.com -you guys could think about making that better known.
When I do https://updates.dnsomatic.com/nic/update?hostname=all.dnsomatic.com and login with my username and password, it gives me my dynamic IP so I guess something is working, but what?
Why were all the services I added still "waiting for the first update"?
So I abandoned OPENDNS and have been relying on the DYNDNS.org service built into my router but now they are abolishing their free accounts.
q1) I wanted to use my router to update DNS-O-MATIC directly, but am stuck with some of the field entries:
Host: Wanted to use the 'network 'LABEL' given in my OpenDNS account dashboard, but instead used:
all
Domain: dnsomatic.com
User name: the email address registered as part of my account at opendns.com
Server Address: what do I put? 67.215.65.132 is the DNSOMATIC IP address, so that's what I put?
Server port: what do I put? I put 80 as I couldn't see anything about any special ports anywhere
Protocol: GNUDip.http
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q2) I don't see why, as OPENDNS always knows my public IP address and you guys created DNS-O-MATIC, anyone ever needs a client updater. Can you please explain?
q3) Why do you want people to install client updater software on their PCs? Your docs ask that the device with the client updater on it is always on - that is such as waste when the only device that needs to be on is the router and, when that is on, you guys know the IP address anyway. Routers nowadays have USB ports for hard drives - if an ordinary home user has stored their photos on a router-attached hard drive, why do they need to leave their PC on at home all day (and not able to sleep) when they want to access their photos from work? I am sure the DNS infrastructure at OPENDNS is elegant and wastes nothing, so why ask your users to waste CPU cycles and power?
Thanks for your patience in dealing with these issues - please accept that you may have an opportunity to improve the quality of your service here, as I reckon I'm not the only idiot among your users...
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Regarding your router, how could I know if you even tell me its exact model or ideally post a link to an online manual?
Guessed entries:
Host: all.dnsomatic.com
Domain: leave empty
User name: E-mail address registered with DNS-O-Matic/OpenDNS
Server Address: updates.dnsomatic.com
Server port: 80
Protocol: HTTP"as OPENDNS always knows my public IP address"
No, totally wrong. Nobody ever knows your IP address unless you connect with them, e.g. via DDNS Updater or browser. This is why you need a kind of Updater.
"Why do you want people to install client updater software on their PCs?"
I do not want people to install anything. I'm a user like you. You could use another form of Updater, like the built-in into your router, with or without DNS-O-Matic. Unfortunately not many routers support updates to DNS-O-Matic, OpenDNS or "user defined". But there is alternative router firmware available supporting it.
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Thanks rotbiltz - I thought I was communicating with OpenDNS - it is good of you to help and I appreciate it.
>"as OPENDNS always knows my public IP address"
>>No, totally wrong.
How does OpenDNS give me their nameserver response if it does not know my public IP address?
Everyone using OPENDNS as their nameservers (which I guessed would be everyone reading this forum) is constantly exchanging UDP traffic with Open DNS. The opportunity for OpenDNS to offer an automatic service (maybe based on one of the management protocols) is clear to me, so why don't they do it? A domain services company (DynDNS) got their credentials in almost every modern router by default at very little cost to DynDNS. That's worth real money to any company and OpenDNS seems to want that sort of success.
My router has an interface to the GNUDip.http protocl that is used to update DynDNS and other services - I hope it does not matter which router it is, so didn't name it - every router that uses the same protocol should presumably ask the same questions I wanted answers to.
Mine is a Huawei HG523a - many of the big ISPs here in the UK use this or similar models, so it is very common here. The user guide (attached) does not cover the 'advanced' functions).
Here's a screenshot of the interface, but all I need is the values for the fields.
http://screenshots.portforward.com/routers/Huawei/EchoLife_HG532/DDNS.htm
>>Domain: leave empty
The router will not let me leave any of the fields I asked for blank.
HUAWEI_HG523a_User_Manual.pdf -
Oh and another thing I noticed:
When you add OpenDNS as a service to DNS-O-Matic, DNS-O-Matic automatically adds your OpenDNS user name (let's call it UNAME) and the network label you choose in your OpenDNs account (lets call that ULABEL). Those are the credentials I expected to have to add to my router.
So, what I wanted to put was:
Host: ULABEL
Domain: dnsomatic.com
User name: UNAME
Nice and simple! It doesn't work, but that is how it should work if you ask me. The UNAME and ULABEL combination are enough to uniquely identify me. -
Hello,
To address point 1), the service is designed to update your IP address when your IP address changes. Without a change, it will say waiting for first update until the first IP address update. The status will report either the last successful update (or unsuccessful one) or a notice displaying that your IP has not been updated since you added the service. At this time, ChangeIP, DNSExit, and DYNDns report a successful update on 4/16 on your account, and OpenDNS has not yet been updated by DNS-O-Matic, but I can confirm your OpenDNS IP was updated at the same time as your other services. If you also have the OpenDNS Dynamic IP updater client installed and running, this may have updated your IP and is the cause of DNS-O-MATIC not showing the update in the log. I can confirm that it was updated by the API by either the updater client or DNS-O-MATIC with a matching timestamp of your other services.
To address points 2) and 3) above, the DNS protocol does not include user identification, and therefore we are not always aware of your IP address simply because your DNS server is set to OpenDNS. Just like the DynDNS updater software or built in utilities, a software service that detects the IP change and pushes the update to DynDNS or OpenDNS (or to one or multiple services through the DNS-O-MATIC service). This is a push update from a client, and this requires compatible router software or a software updater on a computer. Without this service, the resolvers would notice that your IP stopped sending DNS requests.
If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to respond to this message.
Best regards,
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Thanks for your support - I am grateful. I offer what may appear criticisms in the spirit that you might be able to use the feedback - you owe me nothing and are giving me something useful for free, so I am in your debt and this might help repay a bit of it.
>>the service is designed to update your IP address when your IP address changes
Not sure what you mean exactly, do you mean the service is not designed to correct an ip address DNS-O-Matic had previously gathered that is now incorrect? For the last few days the IP address stored by DNS-O-Matic for me was an old one, as I could not make the update system work. Are you saying that, as the updater will not trigger until my IP address changes, if my IP address doesn't change, DNS-O-Matic will be wrong until it does?
Put another way, on first run, surely the updater will update my IP address even if it hasn't changed in the last, say, 8 hours, won't it? I assumed it fetched the remotely stored IP address and compared it with the current one.
>>At this time, ChangeIP, DNSExit, and DYNDns report a successful update on 4/16 on your account
That was because I found the DNS-O-Matic URL to update it directly. I wanted to verify that DNS-O-Matic was actually capable of updating the services (ChangeIP, DNSExit, and DYNDns) I added to it
As I wrote, I don't want to waste resources by having something run every few minutes on my PC when my public IP address changes so rarely. Like most people I guess, my router stays on 24/7, so my ISP-issued public IP address may not change for years. That's millions of CPU cycles expended by the updater with no update being needed. That makes me consider a 'polling' updater to be a less-than-ideal solution.
I also don't like the closed-source nature of the updater, so I looked to use an open-source one from your list. Ignoring the broken links in your list, none of the free ones worked for me - most have not been updated for several years.
I looked at the many scripts out there that do the job - they are all simple, mostly one-liners and completely 'normal'. Have you considered adding that info to help other users? For those who want to download a program to do the job, yours is probably the only one that works and even yours is not as good as it could be.
The OpenDNS updater takes a good few minutes to update DNS-O-Matic, which is not ideal. It does not seem to be aware of Daylight Saving Time, could you change that?
Once DNS-O-Matic has received an update, DNS-O-Matic also takes a good while to update the services I want to use with it. So far, it's been 35 minutes since the OpenDNS updater has given DNS-O-Matic a new IP address. DNS-O-Matic is showing it has received it, so the updater client is working. but DNS-O-Matic still hasn't updated the three other other DNS services I added to it. Can you change the speed of response?
Surely the best solution is to add a script to the router? You might consider adding links to scripts that do that as some will want to go that way.
>>compatible router software
I'm sure you are aware that there are many ways you could provide a DDNS service that didn't need a push update - this is not router-specific, it makes use of internet standards. Nowadays most routers are fully compliant with a range of them - SMTP is probably the simplest, but there are many other ways as I am sure you know well. What a great opportunity to improve all our lives - sense the change at your end and tell DNS-O-Matic - an elegant solution that would enhance your offer. Why, you could even set a new standard in IP address management by working with the ISP's who muse be among your most important commercial targets.
IOW Why not offer DDNS directly yourselves?
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Thanks rotblitz - I'm ready to give them all the info and permissions they need, aren't you? User name, password, mac address of my router etc - I'd even be prepared to confiugre a few SNMP traps, add a script to my router. Hope they'd provide a whol range of ways to relate to them, as there are so many different types of user out there who might want DDNS.
Be worth it to get a DDNS service that they ran for us.
Incidentally, the whole shape of the internet would be and still could be different if people ran their own servers at home - why pay hosting fees?
For OpenDNS to provide a free DDNS service (not that the main player has decided to pull out) It's just a question of, which way is better? For example, there's a few router management protocols they could use, but that's overkill unless they wanted to carve out even more internet infrastructure for themselves - after all, if it's good enough for google....
If you were running a DDNS service, how would you do it?
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Hello,
I'd like to clarify one important point. OpenDNS is not any way a DDNS service! The Updater client and API is designed to allow users to update their dynamic IP address in order to ensure that their current IP matches their registered IP so that content filtering can be applied correctly. We do not offer services similar to DynDNS. DNS-O-MATIC was created to allow for one service to update multiple services to avoid the need for multiple multiple updater clients. One client that is up to date is the Marcs Updater (http://updater.marc-hoersken.de/). If you are interested in developing a custom service, the development API is available from https://www.dnsomatic.com/wiki/api.
Best regards,
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Thanks! I tried Marcs Updater -think it's almost the only one that is up to date. Unfortunately, it doesn't work - sits in the tray OK, 'diagnose' function works OK, but it never updates DNS-O-MATIC, so it is useless, sadly. As I wrote - most of the clients on your list are either broken links, not updated in the last few years or do not work. Kinda give the impression that nobody gives a stuff about DDNS users.
My DNS-O-MATIC still does not work - can you help? It's not triggering the services I added. I have not reconfigured them since they last worked, so I'm stuck. Here's my OpenDNS history (I've obscured the last three digits with XXX)
78.146.31.xxx 2014-04-18 14:42
78.146.31.xxx 2014-04-18 11:42
78.146.31.xxx 2014-04-18 08:42
78.146.31.xxx 2014-04-17 21:26
78.146.31.xxx 2014-04-17 21:26 -
"Unfortunately, it doesn't work - sits in the tray OK, 'diagnose' function works OK, but it never updates DNS-O-MATIC, so it is useless, sadly."
It works for me. Why dosn't it work for you? Did you select "DNS-O-Matic" as service and all.dnsomatic.com as hostname? Also, did you enter your e-mail address and password registered with DNS-O-Matic/OpenDNS as username and password?
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I worked systematically through all the clients, some of which no longer exist, most of which have not been updated in years.
Don't know why Marcs Updater (http://updater.marc-hoersken.de) didn't work, it has limited diagnostics and is closed source. It sort of half-worked. The 'diagnose' function return the correct IP address etc. It just never updated the DNS-O-Matic service I configured it for. Maybe because I use the latest version of Windows? The good folks who generously gave Marcs Updater out for free probably cannot afford to update it too regularly.
The OpenDNS updater half works- it updates DNS-O-Matic, but DNS-O-Matic does not update my choice of the free DNS providers it supports.
I started with changeip.com and added another couple - they all worked when I updated DNS-O-Matic manually a few days ago and I haven't changed them since.
When OpenDNS updates DNS-O-Matic, the free DNS providers do not get updated, so the whole thing is almost useless.
Basically, if I, a relatively ordinary person who has a lot of experience in IT, cannot get this stuff to work, what's wrong? Is it me or is it the whole OpenDNS solution approach? What does it take for them to get it to work for the 'silent majority' of people who stop by, follow the instructions, try and fail, and never return? How symptomatic of their general approach is this system?
As I wrote, I guess that most people just move away from OpenDNS and DNS-O-Matic, recognising that they are not as good as they need to be - life's too short.
So OpenDNS have no way of realising that their rep is being diminished - if they realised that, maybe they'd spend a few more dollars on it, dollars I think they will get back many times over.
In another discovery of yet more hidden info, I found out from a post made by someone using your name on the Marcs Updater site that this is valid:
myip.opendns.com
If you ping it it will tell you your IP address - presumably only if you have the OpenDNS client updater.
How many more hidden features are there?
How many other invisible features are there?
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"DNS-O-Matic does not update my choice of the free DNS providers it supports."
Open a support ticket. Staff need to look into your account.
"When OpenDNS updates DNS-O-Matic"
Never. It's the other way around: DNS-O-Matic updates OpenDNS.
"I found out from a post made by someone using your name on the Marcs Updater site that this is valid:
myip.opendns.com"
This was me. And this is well documented at https://support.opendns.com/entries/25977260-Dynamic-IP-Windows-Updater-Documentation
For technically minded: the program determines if your computer is using OpenDNS service by trying to resolve myip.opendns.com address using your DNS server. Only OpenDNS's servers know how to resolve this particular address so if we don't get the right response, we assume that OpenDNS service is not being used.
Beside the OpenDNS Updater, this is used also by Marc's Updater. But never mind, you don't need to worry about any "hidden features".
"How many more hidden features are there?"
There are more diagnostics like this: https://support.opendns.com/entries/21841580-Diagnostic-Tool-Link
"If you ping it it will tell you your IP address - presumably only if you have the OpenDNS client updater."
No, and no. This is foreseen to be used with DNS tools like nslookup. Ping doesn't count as such.
nslookup myip.opendns.com.
It returns your IP address OpenDNS sees from your DNS queries as source IP address.
"Don't know why Marcs Updater didn't work, it has limited diagnostics"
Configure a global environment variable LOGLEVEL=7, and Marc's Updater will write nice debug logs into "%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Marc's Updater".
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for my Huawei HG532d i used the following settings:
Step 1 - Setting up the DNS server configuration
Step 1.1 - Point you router to the OpenDns DNS Servers
You can do this even if you don't have an OpenDns account but that won't give you any control over the content accessible over your router. All that will happen is that you will use the OpenDns DNS servers which are good but meh!Go to the router page on your LAN. This is normally 192.168.1.1 but you may have changed it.Login as the admin user using your password (make sure you change this from the default or all the stuff below will be pointless)- Go to the Basic LAN section
- Change the Primary and Secondary DNS settings to the OpenDns servers 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220 respectively. These are the DNS settings given to computers that connect to your router. Make sure you are in the LAN section not the WAN section as there is also a place for DNS settings there.
- refresh or your IP address on your computer so the router assigns you the OpenDNS servers. If you do not know how to refresh the IP address just reboot your computer
- Check your config is working by going to https://www.opendns.com/welcome/
Step 1.2 - Get an OpenDns account and block whatever content you like
Next step, if you don't already have one, is to set up an OpenDns account (I'm not going to document this - just go to OpenDns.com and set up a free account and choose which content you want to block)Step 1.3. Configure your router to tell OpenDns what your IP is
If you have a fixed (static) public IP (which most people don't) then you can ignore this step as you will already have configured your OpenDns account with your IP address. If on the other hand, like most of us, you have a Dynamic IP that changes on the whim of your internet provider then you need something to keep OpenDns informed whenever it changes.You can do this in a number of ways but I think the best way is to get your router to do it auto-magically via dns-o-matic. I have had some issues getting this to work but it seems to be working now I've upgraded to version 1.20t of the router firmware (we'll see).- Create a dns-o-matic account (https://www.dnsomatic.com/)
- Add the OpenDns service to your account
Then go back to your router to point it to the dns-o-matic account you've just created- Go to the Advanced -> DDNS section
- Set Service Provider to "Others"
- Set host to "all"
- Set domain to "dnsomatic.com"
- Set username and password to the values you entered when creating your dns-o-matic account
- Set server to "http://updates.dnsomatic.com/nic/update"
- Set port to "80"
- Set protocol to "GNUDip.http"
- Set service name to something appropriate (I used "dnsomatic")
- Submit your config
- logon to www.dnsomatic.com and check when the last status update was. if you were successful it will be the same time as you hit submit in step 10.
(credit to http://myblogofmystuff.blogspot.com.au/2015/09/using-opendns-on-huawei-hg533-router.html - I just had to modify the server and ignored step 2 for my 532G router that was given to me by my ISP in Australia, TPG)
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i am not sure dns-o-matic supports GNUDip.http protocol used by huawei routers. i have huawei hg253s, exactly same ddns configuration settings as huawei hg532d, followed the instructions by georgewarrengonsalves and it did not worked. if you have any ideas for updating dns-o-matic using my huawei router, i would be very grateful.
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I couldn't find a user manual that covers ddns settings. It has very limited information:
http://fullflavour.nz/files/5314/3926/5982/HG253s_V2_Home_Gateway_Product_Description.pdf
I am away from my router, so I cannot post a screenshot. But below image is exactly the same as my router's ddns page:
https://www.dynu.com/content/images/content/IPUpdateClient/HUAWEI-DDNS.png
I couldn't figure out how to fill this form. I tried some guesses. I did not get any error message. I know it is not working because dnsomatic is not showing my updated ip address. There is no activity in the history log. Therefore, I am assuming my router cannot communicate with the update server.
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Try with these settings:
Host: first part of your DDNS hostname: myname
Domain: remaining parts of your DDNS hostname: domain.tld
Username and password: your OpenDNS/DNS-O-Matic credentials
Server address: updates.dnsomatic.com/nic/update
Server port: 80
Protocol: No idea. What can you select from?
Service name: probably free text with no relevance?
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