Running a Home Server with Dynamic DNS in your Router
Posted by Andy Atkinson on 12/18/05 in Freeware, Hardware, Tips
Dynamic DNS is a service that lets you create a domain name that will map to your dynamic IP address so that you can run a home server without having a static IP address. Static IP addresses are typically not provided to residential broadband customers and sometimes ISPs charge a hefty price for one. Until recently, if you ran a Dynamic DNS service like this, you would need to install a client that would constantly monitor your external “routable” address, then update the Dynamic DNS servers so that the same domain could always find your server. The new development here is that many new routers, wired and wireless, will run the Dynamic DNS client software on the router itself. This means you can put your Dynamic DNS account information into the router and you do not have to worry about installing and configuring any software on your server. This quick tip will show you how to get DynDNS configured to run a simple web server with the Linksys WRT54G wireless router.
The Linksys WRT54G wireless router lets me run a dynamic IP address service from either DynDNS or TZO. I setup an account at DynDNS rather quickly, signed into my account and put my dynamic IP address in from Comcast using the “Dynamic DNS” service found at the website above.
The next step is to configure your router. You can run a number of services from your home machine, depending on what your needs are. For the time being, I am running a simple web server, on port 8080, but you can run many services on many different port numbers and access them all with your DynDNS domain name. The first thing you will want to do is put your account information in from DynDNS. On this Linksys router these settings can be found under Setup > DDNS. If your router supports DynDNS or another service provider, the steps below should work in the same way.
Now we will have to make sure our firewalls are configured properly. There is a firewall on your router and there should also be a firewall on your server. At a minimum there should be the Windows XP firewall that comes with Service Pack 2 if you are running Windows XP like I am. Depending on which services you want to run on your server, you will need to open up the appropriate ports. On the Linksys router, these settings can be found under Applications & Gaming > Port Range Forward. You can see in the screenshot below that I have configured the “WWW” service to run on port 8080, which is my web server. If I want to add additional services, I can define additional ports to forward to the same server. On the right side, I put in the private IP address of my server, in this case it is 192.168.1.100, I click the checkbox in the “Enable” column, and save my settings.
Finally, we want to configure the software firewall on our server. If you are using the Windows XP firewall, you can right-click your ethernet card and choose properties. Under the “Advanced” tab you will find the Windows Firewall button you can click to configure ports. Your web server port may already be configured, otherwise like in the screenshot below, you can add the same port that you have configured on your router as an “exception” to the software firewall. If you are using a different software firewall the process should be similar.
In this quick tip, I showed you how to setup DynDNS so that you can run a server from your home behind a dynamic IP address. Using a service that keeps track of your public, routable IP address like Dynamic DNS from DynDNS, we can run a simple server without paying for a static IP address or business class connection to the Internet. If you are in an apartment building that is running network address translation (NAT), you will have a private IP address (RFC 19168) and will likely not be able to run a server since you will not have access to the firewall. Once you are ready to run a production web server, you will likely outgrow your DynDNS domain name and want to consider a more advanced solution than the one presented here. This guide should help you setup a test server, but is not intended to provide a solution for a business-critical website or service. Also keep in mind that running a home server may violate the acceptable user policy (AUP) you have with your Internet service provider.
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WriteClearly | Feb 26, 2006 | Reply
The information in the article above is correct for a Dynamic DNS account with DynDNS. But if you have a Custom DNS or Static DNS, then you need to slightly change the configuration.
It is a bit difficult to parse through the somewhat ambiguous directions that DynDNS has on it site:
but essentially you need to add “&service=custom” or “&service=static” to your “Hostname” setting in your WRT54G DDNS configuration page.
Hope this helps.
Andy Atkinson | Feb 26, 2006 | Reply
Hello. I am aware of these services from DynDNS, but have not tried them myself. I have a friend that is interested in trying them for a home web server, so these instructions should prove helpful. If you would like to write a “how to” guide on setting up these additional services from DynDNS, I’d love to host it.
Anonymous | Jan 31, 2007 | Reply
I used your method but when I typed my DynDNS address in the browser, I am landing on the Router web interface…What should I do…
Thanks(Pl send me email at the above address…thanks)
Charles Shoults | Jun 22, 2007 | Reply
I got this whole process to work, but I need to take it a step further. If someone tries to access the address from the outside, it works fine but I need to duplicate the process for users on the LAN. Currently, if a LAN-connected user tries to access http://charlesshoults.dyndns.org, they get a page cannot be displayed. Best I can figure is that it has something to do with trying to go out of the router and then back through it and not correctly resolving DNS, but I can’t find any way to fix it.
People can easily enter x.x.x.102 into the browser but I need a better solution. If I go on a website and post a link to an image that is housed on my local server, I must specify it as “img src=http://charlesshoults.dyndns.org/whatever.gif”. Those outside my network can view the image, but anyone on my local network cannot.
Any ideas?
Anonymous | Jun 28, 2007 | Reply
I also have the router on the LAN side of a DSL modem & get my IP updated to my LAN address…
meshif | Aug 29, 2007 | Reply
I was having the above problem as well (DNS resolving to router config page). I was able to avoid this by making a PPPoE connection for my internet. Just follow these steps in XP and it should work: -click start->control panel->classic view->network connections -from the tasks on the left select ‘create a new connection’ -select ‘connect to the internet’ on the first screen and click next -select ’set up my connection manually’ and click next -select ‘connect using a broadband connection that requires a username and password’ and click next -type whatever you want in this box; its your icon name; and click next -fill in the username and password from your ISP and make sure both boxes are checked and click next -now put a checkmark in the box and click finish. Now as long as this new connection is active your DNS will point to the right IP address. Also this connection seems to boost my speeds a bit, anyone else find this?
Connor | Oct 14, 2007 | Reply
Hi, I didn’t have a problem accessing my DynDNS domain from inside my network. I understand why this would happen, but I find it strange that I have no problems regarding this.
Matthew | Nov 12, 2007 | Reply
I too am having the “DNS resolving to router config page” issue. I have comcast internet service, do they offer PPPoE IDs? Is there another way that someone knows on how to resolve this issue? Please email me and thanks for the help!
Matthew | Nov 12, 2007 | Reply
Did you find a solution?
Czar | Jan 1, 2008 | Reply
Sorry no one else sent in a solution prior to this one.
Go to applications & gaming. Port 80 for serving web pagets (www) in mine was set to go directly to the router 192.168.1.1. Change it to 192.168.1.100 generally, that ought to put it on the computer being used as a server instead of on the router itself.
A pretty simple solution, but it took several google selections to discover that I was landing on the router instead of my server’s website!
broadbandsecurity dot org | May 31, 2008 | Reply
Be sure to check the security of your home server.
http://www.broadbandsecurity.org - Nmap and Nessus Security scanning (FREE)