Could you please support the noip.com free DDNS?

[W7KWS]

Hello Mikael,

I am hoping that you will consider supporting other DDNS services such as noip.com which is still a free ddns service for up to five non-commercial host names.  I realize that you are providing free DDNS service for RemoteRig in addition to supporting DynDNS but it would be helpful to include support for other DDNS services that we use for our general systems.  If the RemoteRig did this it would backup the DDNS client on my computer in case of its failure.

Since my computer crashed, I've lost access to my station.  The RemoteRig still works but I now cannot rotate my beam or switch antennas.  If the RemoteRig was updating the free noip.com I would still have access to these systems which are run separetly from the RemoteRig.

I will look forward to your thoughts on this.  If you need the noip.com settings, the developer is very helpful or I can forward them to you.

Thank you,

Bob, W7KWS

[dj0qn]

Bob,

Although it may make sense for RemoteRig to support other free services such as noip.com, your statement
is not really logical.

It is completely irrelevant which service you use to reach your network, because you have only one single external
IP number. If you had 10 devices, only one of them needs to have some sort of dynamic DNS service to be able to
reach your entire network. Indeed, using the RemoteRig built-in service allows a fall-back to reach your network if
the other service can not be used.

If you still have access to your station using RemoteRig's system, just copy and paste that IP address (called SIP
contact in your control RCC) into the other devices or browser and use the correct ports. Then you will be able to
reach your beam and switch. You will find that having this actually allows you a fall-back and will make things easier
for you. Just try it now and you will see that this solves your problem.

73,
Mitch DJ0QN / K7DX

[W7KWS]

Mitch,

Thank you for your suggestion but, unfortunately, my IP address at the far end changes several times a day.  What you suggest is great for a work around but is inconvenient and time consuming to enter the new IP address into all of the clients I have here every time the distant end changes.  In addition to my rotor, Steppir and antenna switch, I have things such as my VOIP telephone OPX line, IP Camera, Etc., none of which have the ability to update DDNS.  There are just too many clients to be updated manually so often.

On the other hand, you have inspired me.  Instead of doing what I suggested, I could reverse my thinking and put a RemoteRig DDNS host name into all of the clients here where I am located.  They should resolve just fine but if the RemoteRig failed I might find myself in the same fix without any backup.  Also, this would add unanticipated traffic for the RemoteRig DDNS servers.  My little bit of traffic might not be a problem but if many others decided to do this, it might not be appreciated.  I have a feeling that multiple devices for updating the DDNS server, whichever one I end up using, will be more reliable.

Any thoughts on this?

Thank you,

Bob, W7KWS

[dj0qn]

Bob,

That's what I meant: just use the RemoteRig dynamic DNS address instead. You however still didn't
understand the concept of the multiple devices in that network not needing to update the server. It
is only necessary for one, single device to update the server when the external IP number changes.
Having multiple devices update using the same dynamic DNS server makes no sense, and anyway the
server used by RemoteRig would only allow that authorized device to make the update.

The call-ups generated by your control point is the only traffic generated, and that is only for DNS lookups.
There should be no problem just putting the address used by RemoteRig as the target address, and this
would work every bit as good or better than using noip.

73,
Mitch DJ0QN / K7DX

[W7KWS]

Dear Mitch,

Thanks for the quick feedback.  I must not be describing my main concern to you very well.  In addition to that concern, I'm shy about adding traffic to the RemoteRig servers that is unrelated to RemotRig.

My main concern is for a backup to update the radio location's IP address.  In your scenario, if there is any failure in the RemoteRig or in its path out to the Internet from my LAN, I'll find myself in the same situation I'm in right now with no updates.  It would be better if I could use my RemoteRig to update noip.com in addition to my computer doing so, once it's back up and working.  This way, one of the two could fail and the other would remain available to update noip.com.  There is no way for this kind of redundancy if I rely solely on the RemoteRig’s servers and the RemoteRig radio for doing updates since there is no other device, that I'm aware of, that will act as a backup and update the RemoteRig DDNS server if the RemoteRig Radio should have a problem doing updates.

Thanks & 73,

Bob, W7KWS

[dj0qn]

Hi Bob,

No problem, then select one device, such as your main router and give the noip login
information there. Then you have a backup using either RemoteRig or noip.

73,
Mitch DJ0QN / K7DX

[W7KWS]

For those following this thread please execute an unconditional jump to my reply #2 above, second sentence and replace "IP address" with "host name".

Adding noip.com and/or other DDNS severs to the RemoteRig would make life easier but it's not critical and I can find other solutions.  It's just that this capability would tempt me to by more of of these units.  But, then again, so would the addition of an internal WiFi radio.

Thanks to Mitch for his suggestions.

Aloha from Kauai,

Bob, W7KWS sk for this thread

[dj0qn]

Good luck, Bob. If you want, I can call you by phone to explain things more clearly,
the U.S. (including KH6) is a local call here. We have a 12 hour time difference.

I will be leaving for the Hamvention in a couple of weeks though 

73,
Mitch DJ0QN / K7DX

[sm2o]

I Agree with Mitch I don't see any need to support noip, those who want to use noip can setup their router to use it.

73 de mike

[W7KWS]

Dear Mike,

In Washington State, my Cisco SPA-3102 VOIP router has no DDNS support of any kind and works best connected to the WAN due to dynamic port allocation.  It pick off its VOIP traffic as this traffic passes it headed for the LAN.  I know of no other reasonable priced VOIP router that can take its place.

I've tried many combinations of routers behind the Cisco that claim to support DDNS.  The problem is that, with only one exception, all of these routers use their private non-public IP address supplied by the Cisco DHCP server (double NAT) for updating the DDNS server.  Of course this doesn't work.  If we want to become really long we can talk about IP pass through and other methods, none of which the solve my problem for various reasons solve my problem for various reasons that are to involved to be a part of a simple request for a prouct feature.

The one router that I've found that is an exception my PepLink Balance 80 dual WAN router here in Hawaii which has the smarts to send a message to a DNS server and determine my "public" IP address from the response and use that address to update the DDNS server.  I suspect that the RemoteRig does the same thing since it is designed to work behind a router as well.

I had no idea that a request for a simple feature that would make a product more valuable would attract so many alternative suggestions, few of which apply to my situation and many of which I've already tried. 

If the answer was no, fine then no it is and I'll move on.  I'm just trying to make a suggestion that would make the RemoteRig a more valuable item so that it might attracts a wider audience which includes me.  I like the RemoteRig, I own two sets of twins.  They work well but having worked with Bell Labs in the late 1970s, I learned that useful features can always attract additional customers.  I was hoping to pass something on that would motivate me to promote RemoteRig to my friends and colleagues without having to mention any “gotchas” to an otherwise wonderful product.

Most of the responses that have been made in this thread have been made without a full understanding of what stands in my way to achieving a convenient solution.  As I said, I can solve this in other ways but it will be by spending another $290 on another Peplink router for the Washington location.  I could have used that money to buy an additional RemoteRig if this feature were to be included.  It can't be that difficult and I feel that others might find it to be a useful addition.

73,
Bob, Wk7KWS

[sm2o]

I can't see any connections between those things you describe and if Remoterig support noip or not.

All ddns systems works the same way and will give you a way to reach the equipment without knowing the actual public IP which is the only important thing. If it's noip, Dyndns or remoterig doesn't matter all gives the same result.

And the public address registered at remoterig ddns has nothing to do with if you have single or double NAT, you can try by browsing http://ddns.remoterig.com/ you will see the public ip of your current router as the ddns server see it just now.

/mike

[dj0qn]

Bob,

I also offered to give you a phone call to go through this with you. I think you are either not making
your requirement clear to give us a "full understanding", or else you misunderstand the concept of
DDNS, as Mike tried also to explain. My offer still stands.

73,
Mitch DJ0QN / K7DX

[W7KWS]

Dear Mitch,

I understand the concept of DDNS quite well after having spent much of my career designing networking hardware and some software.   All I asked for was a simple feature that would have helped me solve a problem and briefly described why.  Your suggestion in response, while not yet having learned much of my system, was to imply that I didn't understand DDNS.  Repeating this over and over with greater specificity was both condescending and insulting.  You could have simply said I'll help you but right now we can't put this on our list of additions.

You are right, I haven't sent you a block diagram of my topology nor documented the reasons for it and I would hate to burden you with having to read and understand the administrative guide of my Cisco VOIP router just to have you arrive at the same conclusions that I have.  I appreciate your offer of a phone call but none of your suggestions to date have fit and I hate to waste your time further. 

The simplest solution to what I'm trying to achieve was to have RemoteRig update noip.com.  If that cannot be added, fine I'll move on and spend my money on the second easiest solution.  That's what I did at my Hawaii location and it will work fine in Washington.  I was just trying to suggest something that others might benefit from and spend my money within the ham radio community.

I appreciate your willingness to help but please, in the future; don't suggest that the person you want to help is ignorant, even if he is.

73,

Bob, W7KWS