Dynamic DNS N00b advice please

[YW-Slayer]

I have a .hk domain name that I bought for family use. I would like to redirect this .hk domain name using something like a DDNS service to a new home server that I built. The domain name is currently with a company known as www.abchk.com. I cannot find anything on using DDNS on their website.

I suspect that I will need to buy another service from someone like dyndns or no-ip.com. My current ISP is PCCW Netvigator (an HK company) and I have found this thread but it hasn't helped much. I am not flashing my routers to DD-WRT: http://hongkong.geoexpat.com/forum/117/thread11553.html

1. Am I correct in that I need to ditch ABCHK and get a DDNS service and/or registration from another site?

2. What is the best way of getting DDNS going? Cancel the ABCHK one first, transfer the full registration to something like DynDNS, or get them both to speak to each other (ha ha)?

3. It doesn't look like the pure DDNS services allow for the domain name to be operated as if it were a full domain name (i.e. with mail accounts, webserver, etc.). Is there any way of setting up email addresses from the domain name while having DDNS from another provider? I suppose I could transfer and get email accounts with something like NoIP or DynDNS - it wouldn't be an issue as no-one's ever used the email accounts on the current domain name. However the reason I would like a provider in HK is that I would like my email to arrive on a local server. Am I being unrealistic here? One potential provider looks like: http://webhost.com.hk

4. Or could I use an HK-based DDNS service like this with my current domain name? http://www.hkddns.com/home.htm, http://www.dnschan.com/, or http://hostingspeed.net/account/ddnsplan.php (though the latter page is in Chinese) and if so, how should I do it? I am not entirely clear about registering a different server with InterNIC although I can see that my abchk.com account DOES allow me to change my Domain Name Server addresses.

5. What are the pitfalls (there must be some) of using a "free" DDNS service? Having said that, I don't mind paying for a one-stop solution, particularly if it is a decent local one.

5. Am I totally clueless?

Thanks in an advance for any help.

 

[Nerre]

I can not answer all your questions, but my swedish (.se) domain is handled by a company called Loopia. I registrered my domain through them and that means that for just the annual fee for my domain I get access to their LoopiaDNS service.

LoopiaDNS is a full featured DNS service, that among others include support for dynamic DNS (using the DynDNS protocol).

So my suggestion would be to find a DNS service that can handle all aspects of your domain (both the static and dynamic parts).


Oh, and one more thing. The company taking care of your DNS doesn't have to be the same as the company taking care of your e-mail and such. I have Loopia handling my domain (they are both registrar and DNS), but e-mail is handled by Google Apps (so I use Gmail, Google Calendar and even my Android phone using my own domain).

You can even have your DNS run by one company, e-mail by another, web server by a third.

I use the Dynamic DNS support to get an address to reach my server at home (web and ssh).

 

[YW-Slayer]

Thanks. I ended up creating a trial DynDNS account, after which I followed some of the instructions and contacted abchk's support. However, they were not terribly helpful on how to use Dynamic DNS. I did get as far as getting some instructions to change certain servers, but they were for things like mail, etc. I have changed the DNS servers to the DynDNS names, but I am now really at a bit of a loss (partly because my home server appears to be down for some reason, and I am at work).

My colleague has reminded me that our ASUS routers (mine is a N56U) have a built-in dynamic DNS service. I may try that first, once I get rid of my ISP's idiotic modem-router combo in favour of a pure modem. If that doesn't work to my satisfaction then I may transfer the vanity domain to the DynDNS service and use that as a full website, email etc. host, even if it's not based in HK (as an aside, my general reluctance to use foreign providers stems mainly from an outage in 2001 when there was an undersea earthquake which cut some major pipelines to the US, as a result of which pretty much everyone here lost connectivity with anywhere other than Asia for around a week).

Incidentally, how did you get Google Apps to work with your domain name? Was that due to Loopia's settings? Or did you pay for Google Apps for Business (whether via a reseller or directly) and set it up that way? EDIT: Never mind on that, I noticed from a Lifehacker article you can just sign up for it anyway, paid or free, even with a custom domain name.

Sorry for all the n00b questions, and thanks for your assistance.

 

[Nerre]

I think Google has removed the free Google Apps recently. I got it a few years ago.

The free version was limited to something like 25 users, we are 4 in the family so for us it was never a limitation.


The way it worked was that you set up a few special DNS records to show for Google that the domain was yours. I think you got a code and set up <code>.yourdomain.com as a record for a Google server.

 

[YW-Slayer]

Having done some more research, as my RT-N56U has (apparently) a VPN server and a free ASUS-based DDNS service I think I'll try going with that for now.