Top Level Domains | What TLDs are used for what?

At No-IP, you can choose from a number of Top Level Domains when registering for a domain name. Many people however don’t know exactly which one to pick. So what are they and what are they used for? .com – This TLD was designed specifically for commercial use. It quickly has become the most popular

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10 Gift Ideas for the Tech Geek in Your Family – Holiday Buying Guide

Trying to find the perfect gift for the techie in your life but have no idea what they want? Let No-IP help! We have come up with a list of gifts guaranteed to impress. Check them out below. 1. UDI U818A Drone  It might not deliver mail to your door but, for less than $70, the UDI

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No-IP Launches Toy Drive to Help Community Foster Children

No-IP launches a Toy Drive to help bring smiles to Washoe County children in foster care. You can help spread the joy of the holidays to local children in need! Please contribute a new, unwrapped toy or game to put under the Christmas tree at No-IP by Monday, December 15th. Your donations will benefit Kids Kottage. The Kids

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No-IP’s ISC East Recap

A few weeks ago we attended ISC East in New York City. It was a great experience for us as first time attendees of the trade show and we garnered some great insight into the security world. We spent the majority of the trade show at our booth discussing our current product offerings and launching our newest

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Surviving the Holidays for the Tech Savvy

It’s that time of year again. You are heading to another awkward holiday gathering where you will have forced conversation with relatives you hardly ever see. But that isn’t even the worst of it. Between the warm egg nog and burnt turkey you will inevitably be asked, “Hey, can you help me fix my computer?” It

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No-IP Helps Evelyn Mount Feed 70 Families

Reno, Nev. — No-IP donated enough food for 70 families to Evelyn Mount Community Outreach on Friday, in hopes of helping feed those in need this Thanksgiving. The donation included, 40 large turkeys, 10 hams, 16 cornish game hen, 10 small turkeys and 25 boxes of stuffing.

This small donation is part of a bigger cause, started by Evelyn Mount and her husband Leon in 1979.

“As residents of Reno we consider it a privilege to be able to assist the community in which we live and work,” Heather Eaton, junior product manager said. “ Evelyn Mount has been running a food bank out of her garage for over 30 years, taking donations from the public and putting together food baskets for hundreds of local residents who, without her work, would have no dinner on Thanksgiving.”

The organization located on Cannan Street accepts donations of food and gently used clothing all year long. During the holidays they take donations for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners including turkeys, ham, chicken and the rest of the holiday fixings. Canned goods are also always needed and welcome.

The No-IP team spoke to volunteers at the outreach, who said all the donations they have received are spoken for and more donations are needed. The outreach expects to serve a thousand families and senior citizens this Thanksgiving.

“To give to such a fantastic organization and assist Ms. Mount in helping feed almost 70 families this holiday is an honor,” Eaton said.

Donations of food can be dropped off at Evelyn Mount’s house at 2350 Cannan Street in north Reno.

For more information you can call 359-0807 or 356-2038 Monday through Friday between the hours of 11 am and 4 pm.

Tis the Season for Heavy Web Traffic

Tis the Season for online shopping and ECommerce sites are preparing for the onslaught of heavy web traffic. So how do you make sure your website doesn’t experience slow upload speeds, downtime or loss of customers? It’s simple! Follow these three holiday rules to ensure you are ready for whatever happens this year! Beware of

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No-IP is at ISC East This Week!

No-IP is attending this year’s ISC East trade show in New York City, November 19-20. ISC East is marketed as, “THE security industry trade show.” This year’s event will feature representatives from more than 200 of the security industries best companies. Attendees of the trade show have the opportunity to stay ahead of the security game as they learn about new technology and future products.

Some of the new products and solutions featured at ISC East include:
– wireless security applications
– fingerprint and facial recognition
– lockdown equipment
– home automation

Most importantly, No-IP will be introducing a new security solution at the show! No-IP Security Solutions provides Dynamic DNS and remote access on your own custom domain. It features easy account management and optional installation support from the world’s leader in DDNS. Find out more about this new service here or talk to our sales team at booth 645 during the trade show! 

If you see us there let use know on Twitter or on Facebook!

4 Useful DNS Tools You Should Use

Check out these 4 DNS tools everyone should use to make their lives a little less stressful (like that’s even possible). These tools are great for people that are trying to see if their No-IP hostname is resolving correctly.

To use these tools you will use the Dig command in terminal (Mac) or the command line (PC).

Dig is an acronym for “domain internet groper”.  Dig is a useful tool for webmasters and system administrators, it can be used to query DNS servers and fix DNS related issues.  Dig is a part of the BIND DNS software.

Check out these 4 useful DNS tools you should use:

1. Whois

Whois is an easy way to find information on the owner, nameserver, registrar etc. of a domain name. It is useful for getting all the detailed info you want from a domain, assuming the domain doesn’t have private registration enabled.

The Whois command can help you identify the responsible party for a domain. This is useful if you have problems sending to, or receiving from a domain; or if you just want to query the authoritative nameservers for that domain. To use these tools, open up Terminal on your Mac, or command line on your PC.

Type “Whois” followed by your domain of choice and hit enter.

Then type Whois mashable.com and hit enter. It will bring up all of the domain registration information.

2. Ping

Ping checks to see if you can actually reach a server. It is the go to command for making sure that a server is online and functional. You can also use this tool to see if a website is down for every one, or just you.

Type “ping noip.com” and hit enter

To stop this command hit “Ctrl + C”. Ping is a simple way to check if your domain name is resolving correctly.

3. Dig

Dig is a great way to get check records for a domain like A, MX, TXT, PTR and other advanced DNS records. We have done quite a few extensive Dig tutorials. We love Dig!. Check out this Dig tutorial for some cool ways to use it.

You can use Dig to lookup nameservers. NS lookup is useful for quickly looking up name server information, but it usually requires detailed parameters.

Type “dig noip.com ns” and hit enter.

This command will show all of the nameservers associated with noip.com.

4. Traceroute

Traceroute shows you the route (path) that was used to connect you to the IP address or hostname. It will show all of the routers it goes through until it gets to its destination, or it fails. A traceroute also tells you how long each hop to each router takes and if it fails, it will show you exactly where the IP packet failed. Our support staff uses it all of the time to help customers figure out if their hostname is resolving to the correct IP address. This guide will show you how to run your own trace route.

Have any other DNS tools that you find useful? Let us know in the comments!

Get Treated not Tricked this Holiday Season!

It’s Halloween, which means you and your little goblins are prepping for a night of fun filled tricks, treats and maybe even a little scare!

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