Today No-IP lauched SSL encryption for Alternate-port SMTP. Now clients like Outlook and Mail.app can use an encrypted channel to submit their email. Simply set the correct port and turn on SSL encryption in your client and you are done! The ports are these:

Outlook and Outlook Express (implicit SSL clients)
Use port 465 and check the Use SSL Encryption check box.

All other modern email clients, STARTTLS enabled (explicit SSL clients, e.g. Thunderbird, Mail.app, Evolution)
Use port 3325 or port 587 and check the Use SSL Encryption check box.

This information can be found in the No-IP FAQ item, Does No-IP provide encrypted mail transfer (SSL)?

And, as a bonus, here is a little geek knowledge. Implicit SSL means that SSL is implied, that from the moment the connection is made all data is going to be encrypted. Explicit SSL means that the client must explicitly request SSL. Basically, when a connection is made the server announces that it can do SSL and the client says that it wants it. From that point forward the channel is encrypted.

Implicit SSL is used for SMTPS on port 465, but that standard is deprecated in favor of the more adaptable STARTTLS (RFC 3207). TLS stands for Transport Layer Security and has become a standard for protocols like SMTP. STARTTLS offers the convenience of one port with both plain text and encrypted channel and in that right is more versatile than implicit SSL. Most modern email clients support STARTTLS, save Outlook and Outlook Express. Perhaps in the next version.

No-IP.com is proud to announce that we recently signed up customer number 3,000,000 (yes THREE MILLION)!

That’s 3,000,000 users who have found No-IP to be the perfect partner for their presence on the Internet. Whether it’s our industry leading Dynamic DNS services, our robust Managed Mail solutions, or any of our other offerings, we’re glad to be the service provider of choice for so many of you.

Our staff works continuously to maintain our infrastructure and make sure that No-IP.com is there when you need us. We constantly strive to bring you innovative products that enhance your ability to function online and we’re overjoyed to see the results bear fruit in an ever-growing base of users.

This tremendous growth wouldn’t be possible without the support of our loyal customers who recommend us to their co-workers, friends, and family: For that we give you our thanks!

Happy Holidays from the No-IP team and we look forward to serving you in 2006.

NS2.no-ip.com has been moved to a new IP address. The new ip address is 204.16.252.6.  Please take this time to update your DNS and firewall configurations if you are using the No-IP Squared service.

The old address will continue to provide resolution while customers migrate to the new address.  We will be disabling the old address on December 6, 2005.

This is part of our planned network upgrade at our datacenter in San Diego.

Ns4.no-ip.com has been moved to a new IP address.   The new ip address is 198.65.102.15.  Please take this time to update your DNS and firewall configurations if you are using the No-IP Squared service.

The old address will continue to provide resolution while customers migrate to the new address.  We will be disabling the old address on December 6, 2005.

We have recently added a handful of new domains to the No-IP Enhanced service. The new domains include:

• quicksytes.com
• myactivedirectory.com
• homesecuritypc.com
• homesecuritymac.om
• serveexchange.com
• blogsyte.com
• mymediapc.net
• cable-modem.org
• mypsx.net

And one more for users of the No-IP Free service:

• serveblog.net

Take advantage of these less impacted domains and find the perfect name for your site. Check out No-IP™ Enhanced and Upgrade today!

From time to time we’re asked about using hardware Dynamic DNS clients built in to some routers. While initially that seems to be a great idea, it can really be troublesome to debug customer problems when they’re using firmware DDNS implementations.

We’ve posted a new article in our Guides and Tips section that fully describes the advantages of the No-IP DUC software. You can click here to read the complete article.

True story: A No-IP employee recently had his house broken into while away for a weekend. If he had a few security cameras hooked up he might have been able to catch the thieves red-handed.

This busy holiday season you have better things to do than worry if your house is still standing while you’re on vacation. Did you know that you can use No-IP to provide access to your security cameras over the web when you’re away from home?

It’s quite simple really. Using a No-IP domain name, some readily available cameras, and a PC-based (or standalone) Digital Video Recorder (DVR), you can access the cameras from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. To find out more on how you can use No-IP, have a look at this article from the Guides and Tips section of our website.

Parlez-vous français?

No-IP is constantly providing updates to its FAQ with new and insiteful information to insure the best user experience. This most recent development is something that we are very excited about.

The FAQ is now available in French! We hope that all of our French speaking users enjoy this new addition to our support section. In addition to French, No-IP’s FAQ is available in Spanish and English.

A few days ago this bad boy showed up in the mail.

Cnet / Download.com awarded No-IP with this trophy for obtaining more than 1 million downloads of our award winning Windows DUC (Dynamic Update Client) via Download.com. We’d like to thank all of our users for using our service and our Dynamic Update Client. With over 1.7 million downloads, that 2 million trophy is just around the corner!

Some exciting news for new and existing domain registration customers. Registration prices have just been slashed!

Prices on registration and renewals for .com/.net/.org/.info/.biz/.us have been lowered to just $15.00 per year. Domain transfer prices are also now just $15.00.

Now is the perfect time to transfer or register your very own domain name.