Custom/personal dyndns solution?

Question

I can't think of how to make this work, but it seems like something that should be doable..

I currently own my own domain, and have been using dyndns.com's "custom DNS" to allow me to redirect 'example.com' to my website at home, which is on a dynamic IP.

I've now switched over to a VPS solution which hosts my website and allows me root access to a box (me likey), which will now host "example.com" on a static IP.

My question is, is it possible for me to somehow make "home.example.com" route to my box at home? Is there any software available that could automate updates to the DNS for this?

Ideally I'd like not to pay a service if possible, but if that's the only way then I suppose I'll have to go that way.

Thanks!

Answer 1

My suggestion (and what I do) would be to continue using DynDNS, and create a subdomain for home.example.com and make a CNAME to myhouse.dyndns.com (or whatever your DynDNS domain name is). This gives you the flexibility of using your own domain name with the ease of updating of DynDNS.

Personal example: (the .doesntexist.org address is my DynDNS address)

0 09:37:13pm ~ $ dig woodcrest.thepurplepixel.org


; <<>> DiG 9.4.3-P3 <<>> woodcrest.thepurplepixel.org
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 28814
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;woodcrest.thepurplepixel.org.  IN  A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
woodcrest.thepurplepixel.org. 3600 IN CNAME   thepurplepixel.doesntexist.org.
thepurplepixel.doesntexist.org. 60 IN  A   174.93.79.144

Answer 2

BIND already supports this. The IETF standards-track RFC 2136 defines the protocol and calls it "DNS UPDATE". Apple built the "Wide Area Bonjour" part of Bonjour on this (among other things). Mac OS X has a built-in client for this, and if your version of Windows doesn't have a built-in client, you can use "Bonjour for Windows". As a bonus, you can use all the other conveniences of Wide Area Bonjour. More information at http://www.dns-sd.org/ServerSetup.html