DynDNSix

Introduction

short version

remembering numbers sucks! and they are everywhere! i mean IP_v4 with four bytes: ok. but (up to) 16 bytes for IP_v6: no way! (and they are even represented in hex!) welcome to the world of tomorrow...

oh wait - there's DNS. why don't use that? fine. any free service provinding DDNS for IP_v6 to be used easy?

i basically built it to do:

ssh ipv6-enabled-host.dyndnsix.org

where the target gets IP_v6-connectivity through a (registration-free) teredo IP_v6-in-IP_v4-UDP-tunnel, which even works when both parties are behind NAT. using DynDNSix both can be mobile, while their gateways can change their IP_v4 periodically.

long story

to be written (lucky you!)...

Features

• Dynamic DNS for IPv6
• AAAA records only
• no registration required
• optional: protect your subdomain with a secret to deny updates from others (up to 30 days after last update)
• optional: provide email address and receive information regarding this service
• no special client required (use anything you like that can do a HTTPS GET request [e.g. cURL, wget, browser])
• traffic is encrypted using SSL/TLS
• TODO: browser redirect to use this site as a browser default and redirect to the user's default site afterwards.

Usage

updating a record with your current IP_v6 is easy. just call a URL from the device you want the name to be assigned to. its IP_v6-address will be detected automatically. therefore the update-server update.dyndnsix.org is only available via IP_v6 to avoid problems with dual-stack hosts, while this page is also reachable via IP_v4. in my examples i will use the name "example". this will assign the DNS name "example.dyndnsix.org" to the IP_v6 that requested the URL.

i'm using curl to do the request in my examples. you can exchange it with whatever IP_v6-enabled tool you like. even your browser.

there are different ways to use DynDNSix. they differ in the URL.

Instant

the most basic version simply updates the DNS record for the given subdomain. this can be done by anyone at any time, so it's perfect for instant assignments that you don't want to use long-term.

Example

update example.dyndnsix.org with your current IP_v6:

curl https://update.dyndnsix.org/example

Persistent

you may choose to provide a secret with your update, which we store. once you've done this for a host, you have to send the same secret with every update-request.

this way you protect your subdomain from unauthorized updates by third-parties.

you cannot change the secret afterwards, so keep it as it is: a secret. we encourage you to use TLS encryption by enforcing the https protocol to talk with our update-server.

the secret can be any (case-sensitive) combination of alpha-numeric characters (A-Z, a-z, 0-9). since you would probably query the update-server from a script, you can make sure that you use some long, random string. e.g. you can generate a 16 character secret using pwgen (linux):

pwgen -s 16 1

with every successful update a new 30 day period begins. within that period your subdomain is protected by your secret. when you don't update for 30 days, the subdomain still resolves your IP_v6, but is free to be updated by anybody again.

you can consider this like a light-weight registration. you simply register in-band and every usage is like a registration or every registration is like a regular usage. actually it's not that different (in terms of complexity) from the instant usage.

Example

update example.dyndnsix.org with your current IP_v6 protected by secret:

curl https://update.dyndnsix.org/example/secret

Persistent with Email

you may provide us with an email address to contact you regarding this service. this is really optional, but also requires a secret to be used.

again, this doesn't differ much from the persistent or instant usage described above. you just add your email address to the request.

you can change the email address at any time by issuing an update-request with another one. just make sure subdomain and secret stay the same.

the same way you can delete the email address at any time by updating again and omitting any email address (see persistent usage).

reasons to give email address:

• get warning when you haven't updated your record for almost 30 days before your protection persiod expires. (not implemented yet)
• get service announcements, like scheduled downtimes.
• make me rich by selling them to IP_v6-spammers, since you are a great target audience.

please note, that due to URL-encoding email addresses with containing a plus-sign (+) won't work. i'm really sorry, as i'm a great fan of plussed addresses, but the solution of encoding them is too ugly to be useful...

Example

update example.dyndnsix.org with your current IP_v6 protected by secret and your email address mail.example.com:

curl https://update.dyndnsix.org/example/secret/mail@example.com

get IPv6

native

ask your local ISP for IP_v6-connectivity!

tunnel

• Teredo in Microsoft Windows
• Miredo - Teredo tunnel for Linux / BSD
• Miredo-OSX - Teredo tunnel for MacOS X

Contact

you got new ideas, features, improvements? any feedback is appreciated, so just drop me a mail: pille+contact@dyndnsix.org!

last updated: Saturday, 23. October 2010 at 02:20:57 PM UTC [2010-10-23 14:20:57 +0000]