Last week I spent five days in sunny Cancun, Mexico. My husband and I took the trip as a late honeymoon and we have never traveled together out of the country. We were excited but also nervous because, like many of you, we own dogs.  We actually have three dogs and no kids, so obviously they are our babies. We worried how they would react to both of us being gone for so many days.

My sister was going to come feed, water and play with them twice a day, but I liked the idea of being able to check in on them when I wanted. Well, lucky for me I work at No-IP. So what did I do? I installed an IP camera in the living room and set up Dynamic DNS, so I could have access to them at all times.

I first decided on a camera to use by consulting our Support Manager Deven. He recommended that I use an Amcrest camera. They run around $100 and can be purchased from any major retailer or ordered on Amazon.  I selected the Amcrest IP2M-841 ProHD 1080P (1920TVL) WiFi IP Security Camera.

Once it came in the mail I worked with my husband to install it in a corner of the living room that would give us a full view of the space. We installed it up high to prevent the dogs from knocking it over, or chewing on the cords (we still have a puppy).

Next, I created an account on No-IP.com using the quick sign up form. You can find out more about how to create an account here.
Please note: If you are behind a router or firewall you will need to Port Forward on your router. We have some documentation on how to port forward but it is limited. Check out your routers support page for more information if you are confused. 

After I created an account and configured it with my camera, I checked to make sure everything was operational. I went to www.portchecktool.com to make sure all my ports were forwarded correctly. Then I used my hostname to make sure I could connect to the camera. Once connected, I doubled checked that it was placed where I wanted it and I was done!

Using No-IP and an IP camera allowed me to go to on vacation without my dogs and guess what I DIDN’T FREAK OUT! You can do the same! Sign-up with No-IP and plan your next big adventure without all the extra worrying.