Test Our Dynamic Update Client Version 4.0 Beta

Try version 4.0 beta of our Dynamic Update Client! This version is currently only available for Windows.

New features of Version 4.0 Include: 

  • Windows 8 support
  • Fixed run on startup/run as system service issues with older versions of windows.
  • Ability to pick an internal network interface
  • Easier to manage update interval (Plus/Enhanced), users
  • Ability to create hosts from the client (Plus/Enhanced) users

We are committed to constant improvement and your feedback plays a large role in our updates and product development. Please contact us at duc@no-ip.com or leave your comment on this post to leave feedback. Download the new DUC today!

Five DNS Management Tips

Last week, the social media giant Facebook suffered some unnecessary downtime that they are now blaming on an error that occurred when a change was made to their DNS infrastructure.

 

“Earlier today we made a change to our DNS infrastructure and that change resulted in some people being temporarily unable to reach the site. We detected and resolved the issue quickly, and we are now back to 100 percent. We apologize for any inconvenience.”

DNS is the core or backbone of the Internet, without it, the Internet would be a much different place; harder to navigate and browse. We talk all the time about how much downtime caused by mother nature, traffic overloads, and other issues can cost your website, but what about user error?

What can you do to safeguard your website against unnecessary downtime due to user error? Simple, out into practice this 5 tips for DNS management.

1. Only allow authorized and knowledgeable people access to DNS accounts
2. Triple check any updates and changes
3. Monitor your DNS. Make sure it is always running and that it is resolving to the proper address. We suggest using Nagios or Pingdom.
4. Don’t let your domain name expire on accident. Register it for a few years at a time, or let it auto-renew.
5. Make sure your DNS Servers are patched and if available, updated to their latest version to avoid vulnerabilities

Who manages your websites DNS? Have you ever had downtime due to errors in DNS updates? What do you do to safeguard your website against downtime?

Launching a New Product or Have An Awesome Idea? Don’t Forget the Most Important Part!

Are you thinking of launching a new product, service, or have an awesome idea for a new invention or product? Don’t forget the most important part of the process: registering the domain. If you forget, it could cost you hundreds, if not thousands of dollars down the road.

Also, are you thinking of a name for your new product, service, idea? Don’t forget to see if the name is already a registered domain. Although it may be okay if you have to choose another TLD if the .com version isn’t available, it may confuse your customers, in the long run, costing you unnecessary time and money.

Check out this other helpful posts:

6 Tips for Choosing the Right Domain Name
Best Practices: The Top 4 Ways to Protect your Domain Name

Government Control of Internet Off Table For Now

Today, the House of Representatives voted unanimously for the Internet to “remain free from government control.”

“Whereas given the importance of the Internet to the global
economy, it is essential that the Internet remain stable,
secure, and free from government control;”

This is quite exciting news, especially since we have seen so many controversial Internet bills pass through the House this past year. This may just be a small step for the Internet, but hopefully, it paves a way for the future in keeping the Internet free of control. You can read the entire Resolution here. What are your thoughts on this Resolution? Are you surprised to see that it was voted for unanimously? I sure was.

[GIVEAWAY] The Text Message Turns 20 Years Old Today

Did you know that the text message turned 20 years old today? On December 3, 1992, the first SMS message was sent! I am not quite sure what I would do without it!

According to Gizmodo, “in 2010 alone, the world sent over 6.1 trillion messages, or roughly 193,000 per second.”

The following 5 people are the winners of our giveaway. Please email ngoguen-text@no-ip.com. Please include your t-shirt size, mailing address, and No-IP username. Congrats!

1. Alex Copland
2. Jonathan Nahlke
3. Luca Viviani
4. Wade Thomas
5. Roger Huegi

Integrated Dynamic DNS Capabilities Becoming a Thing of the Past

Did you know that during a recent poll that we conducted, 50% of our users answered the main reason that they use No-IP Free is for remote access?

integrated dynamic DNS

But even as remote access has been on the rise, many router manufacturers are actually making it more difficult for users to take advantage of easy, free, integrated Dynamic DNS solutions. We are fighting to make Remote Access even easier by offering our Integrated Services for free to manufacturers. At No-IP, we are committed to constant improvement. Our development team is continuously innovating and updating our products to help us stay at the forefront of new technologies.

Free Dynamic DNS Providers are becoming few and far between, with No-IP remaining as one of the last truly free dynamic DNS providers.

Interested in adding No-IP as an integrated dynamic DNS provider in your device? It doesn’t have to be a daunting task, download our exclusive white paper to learn how easy we make it.

Holiday Shopping Brought to You By Managed DNS

santa shopping

I am a total sucker for an online deal; 1 day sales, Cyber Monday sales, Black Friday sales, I am the exact target market. So it should be no surprise I also love holiday shopping!

Continue Reading

No-IP Free Dynamic DNS [VIDEO]

When the Sky is Cloudy [Data Management]

A few years ago, the word cloud mostly related to the clouds in the sky, now it immediately makes me think of Data Clouds. Although a recent study totally contradicts this saying that most people think it is run on actual clouds in the sky.  Most businesses manage their databases in the cloud, they also use the cloud as an easy way to manage data and backups. Home users use cloud services like Dropbox, Google Drive, and Amazon Cloud Drive to easily backup pictures, music, and documents.  Although these solutions are easy and often reliable solutions, how much of your private data do you really want to entrust to big corporations? Google already knows too much about you via your search history and social media sites like Facebook make your personal information everyone’s business.

When it comes to privacy, there is a very fine line of knowing what these companies are doing with your data and whose hands are actually on it. Security breaches have been very common in the past and they aren’t going anywhere.  Sometimes it’s not the question of will someone steals your data, it’s when will they steal your data. So, why not set up your own home cloud? It is actually a lot less daunting than it sounds.

No-IP is an integrated solution in most Synology devices, which makes this integration even more seamless if you would like to easily access your home cloud remotely on a dynamic IP address. You don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars a year for remote cloud data management services.

The product that we recommend is the Synology NAS storage device. It hooks up to your router to easily create a home network for seamless backups. If you decide to purchase the NAS with 2 bays, you will have a fully redundant cloud if the first hard drive were to ever crash. Your data will be at the tip of your fingers, freeing your computers hard drive of unnecessary data. You can check out these tutorials for easily setting up your NAS device at home, the office, or wherever.

Have you set up your own “cloud” before? How did you do it?

Like this article? Be sure to click below to share it on Facebook and Twitter!

 

No-IP Remote Support Success Story

A few weeks ago, we had a user contact our No-IP Remote Support team. The user, Martin, was trying to configure his network so he could monitor his businesses web cameras from home.  Martin isn’t a technician, our service was recommended to him by a friend. He admitted that he wasn’t that computer savvy and that after spending hours trying to figure it out, he was ready to throw his computer out the window.

 

We quickly verified that the No-IP service we set up correctly and determined that Martin was having the same problem a majority of our user’s experience, Port Forwarding their Router.  Port Forwarding is the final and in many cases the most puzzling piece of setting up your remote access.  It is a stumbling block for many users because documentation is limited and because there are so many different router manufacturers as well as changes between firmware versions.

Even though we are not a router manufacturer, we always like to go the extra mile and do our best to help users when they get stuck.  Recently we’ve launched a pilot service that allows our Technical Support Team to remotely log into a users computer and help get our clients online.

Martin agreed to participate in the program and our Support Technician, Alex, emailed him a link to get the remote view support session initiated.

Once logged in, Alex was able to diagnose the problem almost immediately and explained that by default, IP cameras are set to “Listen” on port 80. However, port 80 connections are typically blocked by ISP’s (Internet Service Providers).  Alex set Martin’s router to forward port 8080 instead, and he also changed the default HTTP port of the camera to 8080.

After both steps were complete, Alex checked to make sure Martin’s port 8080 was open using a telnet command inside the terminal.  Success!  The port was open and his network was configured successfully without Martin having to do much more than relaxing and observe.

Martin’s patience and willingness to let our Technical Support Technician remote into his computer allowed him the freedom to monitor his business from a remote location over the Internet. The entire process was completed within 20 minutes.

Martin was ecstatic.  And now he can surreptitiously watch his business and all the shenanigans his employees get into when he is not around.

We were ecstatic too.

Just another example of the No-IP Remote Support team going the extra mile to provide bad ass customer service.

Are you having trouble with Port Forwarding? Give our awesome Technical Support Technicians a call today for help!