Remoterig FREE Dynamic DNS service

[VK3OE]

Thank you for this service.

After upgrading to 2.48 in control and radio units,I followed the instructions in the user manual A17 to the letter. But, after pasting the "own host name" into the SIP contact box of the control unit, and restarting it, the green light (pwr) blinks and I cannot contact the remote radio unit. Reverted to DynDns host name in the SIP contact box and all OK.

Ideas please.

Andrew
VK3OE/VK3OER

[VK3OE]

I can ping the DynDns host and get the remote IP but pinging the dns host name at remoterig does not give me an IP address. Is this the problem??

Andrew
VK3OE/VK3OER

[Jan (Microbit)]

We found a problem which could be the cause to what you see. I can tell for sure if I get the serial number of the RRC in question. We are working on fixing the problem btw.

[sm2o]

We found that we where not accepting serial number lower than 3300. If yours where lower than 3300 that could be the reason. We have fixed that. If you try again and it doesn't work, check the Dynamic DNS status on the Status page and let us know the result

73 de mikel

[VK3OE]

Hello Mike,

The serial numbers are radio 2942, control 2932. I restarted both uints and tried again but the result is the same.

On the radio RCC I do get a own host name xxxxxxxx.ddns.remoterig.com, user name rrc1258-2942 and password   zzzzzzzz.

On the status page of the control unit I get     DNS status     Error, failed to resolve xxxxxxxx.ddns.remoterig.com!

On the status page of the radio unit I Get       DNS status     Querying status

I can resolve my remote IP from both the control site and the remote site using a ping to my dyndns host name.

Is there any other test I can do to help please.

Regards,

Andrew
VK3OE/VK3OER

A ping to the remoterig ddns host results in "unable to resolve host name from the local and remote sites.

[sm2o]

Hi
pse send me a print screen of the dns page and the status page by email to mikael(a)microbit.se

73 de mike

[VK3OE]

Hello Mike,

Thank you for helping to resolve this issue, the serial <3000 was fixed. Then....

It was very simple, put the correct Dns server address in the IP settings of the Radio unit and the radio unit will be able to contact the remoterig ddns server. This then enables the control unit to find the radio unit.

As it says in the radio unit Dynamic DNS settings page "When 'ddns.remoterig.com' is selected the following parameters are self-generated during 'Apply changes':
Own host name Username Password". I did not read this and assumed that as these values had been generated then the remote radio unit was communicating with the remoterig ddns server. This is not the case.

Many thanks Mike for a great product, I am having a lot of fun running my solar powered remote station. See the pictures of VK3OER on QRZ.com.

Andrew
VK3OE/VK3OER

[yabesoog]

RRC 1258 MrkII "radio" DDNS problem

I am experiencing a problem reminiscent of VK3OE's.  I am encouraged when VK3OE writes, "It was very simple, put the correct Dns server address in the IP settings of the Radio unit and the radio unit will be able to contact the remoterig ddns server."  Apparently, I need instructions even simpler yet as I have been unable to determine what the "correct Dns server address" is.  Can somebody clarify this point please?

On the other hand...  Is this solved "simply" as above, or is this another problem entirely?  Just in case here's an extended telling of the saga: 

I recently purchased a pair of RRC-1258 MrkII boxes, and for the most part setup has gone smoothly.  The entire system works when using the known global internet numeric IP address of the radio 1258 entered manually in the control 1258 SIP contact field.  Emboldened, I activated the Dynamic DNS feature in the radio 1258 targeting remoterig's DDNS server as per instructions, and the self-generating parameters generated themselves as promised and clearly ddns.remoterig.com was notified of the global numeric IP address of the radio 1258 at that time as proven by pinging the given xxxxxxxx.ddns.remoterig.com URL.  Furthermore, the entire system worked immediately after replacing the numeric IP address in the control 1258 SIP field with the xxxxxxxx.ddns.remoterig.com URL.  Feelings of satisfaction were abundant.  But since then the global IP address, which has changed, has not been updated at remoterig's DDNS server, and xxxxxxxx.ddns.remoterig.com simply returns the initial IP address.  The radio 1258 does not appear to be willing to update its current global IP address with the ddns.remotrig.com server despite having a check interval value set _not_ equal to "off" (and despite having successfully done so once!)

Some system details:
   control 1258 s/n      : 3303
   radio 1258 s/n      : 3379
   firmware (both)      : v2.50
   target radio system   : Kenwood TS480

Thank you for any ideas on this matter,

Tom
AA0HQ
yabesoog

[Jan (Microbit)]

What does "Dynamic DNS status" on the "Status" page show?

[yabesoog]

Jan,

Complete status page is below.

A few notes:
1.)  I have obtained a DYNDNS account and am using my DSL modem to update the global IP address.  This seems to be working fine for now, but of course I would like to able to use the radio RRC-1258 and ddns.remoterig.com eventually for maximum flexibility of radio QTH.
2.) The External IP address shown below is not accurate.  Check interval is set to "10".  Does this indicate the radio 1258 is unable to successfully query the global IP address?  Maybe for reasons related to the dns update troubles?
3.) Computers on the same Ethernet subnet as the radio 1258 and using identical gateway/dns settings can successfully ping ddns.remoterig.com.  (With luck this means I'm not simply battling my modem.)

Status
Name   Value
Radio   ON
Connection status   OK
SIP status   Connected/transfering
Last SIP error   None
RTP status   Excellent(60)
UDP cmd status   OK(45)
SIP command timeout   0
Rx Jitter buffer size   4
Rx Jitter delay   3
Dual Rx   0
Current audio packet size   20
Current audio quality   2 - Linear 16 bits 8 kHz
External IP   63.226.148.41
SIP Out port   41817
SIP In port   5060
Audio Out port   41675
Audio In port   11000
Command Out port   35326
Command In port   12000
External SIP In port   5060
External Audio In port   11000
External Cmd In port   12000
Other party   142.121.159.250
Input 1   High
Input 2   High
Output 0   Low
Output 1   Low
Output 2   Low
Dynamic DNS status   Unknown
Ping status (watchdog)   Off
DNS status   Querying status
Active profile:   Default
PTT status:   OFF

Thank you, (Happy New Year!)

Tom
Yabesoog
AA0HQ

[Jan (Microbit)]

Hmm.. "Dynamic DNS status   Unknown" indicates that the process of updating/checking the IP somehow stops, probably the "DNS Status Querying status" is the cause as that means the DNS Client fails resolving host names to IP addresses. But at the same time you say that the RRC's DNS settings is the same as other equipment so it should work. Still, a DNS Status which is "Querying status" means that the RRC has DNS related problems.

[yabesoog]

Aha!  My problem was essentially the same a VK3OE's after all.

1.) The main problem was human error (courtesy me).
2.) Specifically, radio RRC-1258 was set to obtain IP settings via DHCP, but DSL modem--set as the DHCP server--was not given any DNS server IP addresses.  Modem supplied its own local IP address as DNS server instead.
3.) RRC-1258s don't like this.
4.) Curiously, Windows XP machines don't seem to care.
5.) The RRC-1258 dynamic DNS works after supplying the DSL modem DHCP server with my ISP's DNS IP addresses when 1258 is set to use DHCP.  Entering one of these DNS IPs directly into the 1258 "IP settings" page and not using DHCP works too.  (I now understand this to be what VK3OE means by "correct Dns server address".)

I do note that the user needs to observe carefully what the RRC-1258 web pages are telling him:

1.) The "IP settings" page does _not_ necessarily reflect all active settings if DHCP is enabled.
2.) The "Info" page reports the IP settings that are active.
3.) If no value is placed in the "DNS server" field of the "IP settings" page, the "Status" page will complain "No Dns Server configured" regardless if DHCP has supplied a valid DNS IP.  In this last case, the Dynamic DNS status can report OK and the dynamic DNS function indeed may work nonetheless.

Final aside:  Should the entire RRC-1258 administration website be username/password protected?  The home page, "Info" and "Status" can be view without being required to log in.  I don't know if clever hackers can cause trouble given the information revealed, but I'm not a clever hacker...

Thanks everyone for the clues,

Tom
AA0HQ
Yabesoog

[dj0qn]

Hi Tom,

Drop me a mail to dj0qn (at) darc.de and I will send you my checklist. This would have helped you out
before you started, but does answer your questions.

73,
Mitch DJ0QN / K7DX

[EA5WA]

Hi everyone:

This is EA5EXK Op: Carlos

I'm testing my recently purchased pair of RRC-1258. I would like to test it before installation at the remote site.

Please, Mitch, could you send me your checklist? I think it would be useful for me.

Thanks, 73's

[dj0qn]

I would have already done so, Carlos, but I don't have your e-mail address. That is why I
requested that you send me an e-mail.

73,
Mitch DJ0QN / K7DX