An option “Description” may be entered if you have several entries to add and you want to provide more details (the “Description” shows up on the main list on the “Dynamic DNS Settings” page). The “Interface to monitor” will mostly likely always be the WAN, but if you have more than one WAN interface, you can select the appropriate interface in the dropdown box.
“Force SSL” can be checked to securely update IP addresses. The “Check ip method” can be set to “Interface” if your router is directly connected to the Internet. Multiple hostnames may be entered if you have several to update with the same IP address. You may enter wildcard domains such as *. if you have them configured with your DNS registrar. If you have subdomains, enter each subdomain. For the “Hostname(s)”, if you want to update the root of the domain, simply enter the domain name again. For the “Password”, use the “Global API key” which is located on the right side of the “Overview” page of your domain on Cloudflare.įor the “Zone” enter the domain name for the zone you wish to update. The “Username” needs to be the email address of your Cloudflare account.
In this example, I am using Cloudflare as the registrar. For the “Service”, select your dynamic DNS provider or registrar that supports updating DNS records. You may have to look up what the values need to be for the ddclient which is being used by the Dynamic DNS plugin in order to properly configure the update client.Ĭlick the “Enable” checkbox to enable the dynamic DNS once you save and apply the changes. The exact settings you will use will depend on which service you are using to update your DNS. Go to the “Services > Dynamic DNS > Settings” page and click the “+” button in order to add a new dynamic DNS entry. You will have to click to another page or refresh the page to see the new menu option. Once the plugin is installed, you will see the “Dynamic DNS” menu option under the “Services” menu.
The older plugin states you should install the newer os-ddclient plugin. Go to “System > Firmware > Plugins” and click the “+” button for the os-ddclient plugin to install it.ĭo not install the os-dyndns plugin since it is essentially old/deprecated if you are using OPNsense 22.1 or newer. Unlike some consumer routers which support dynamic DNS out of the box, OPNsense does not have dynamic DNS functionality installed by default, but this is easily remedied by installing the Dynamic DNS plugin. DreamHost and Cloudflare are two examples of domain registrars which have such an API. That feature is really nice because you do not need to pay for a domain name and pay for a dynamic DNS service that supports custom domain names. If your registrar has an API available, you can update the DNS record(s) via a dynamic DNS client without needing a 3rd party service to manage/update the DNS records.
Some of the services have an option where you can pay to use your own custom domain name if your registrar does not have a means to update DNS records automatically with a script or API.
There are a number of dynamic DNS services that are free, but you are limited to using a handful of generic domain names with those free services. Whenever you use that domain name to access your home network, it should always have the correct up to date IP address for your network (unless you happen to connect in between the time your IP changes and your dynamic DNS client updates your IP). To work around this issue, you can set up domain name using a dynamic DNS service so that your router or other device on the network can periodically update the DNS record for that domain name with your IP address. If you have an interruption of service/power or you turn off your modem for a while, you may end up receiving a new IP address when your old address expires. In my experience, that seems to be the case with Comcast. When your modem stays connected for a long period of time with an ISP, it is possible your IP address will not change very often.
Many ISPs do not assign static IP addresses to non-business accounts especially for IPv4 addresses because they are extremely limited and have technically been exhausted for some time now. If you have any software/services hosted on your home network that you wish to access remotely, you may have encountered a situation in which your public IP address changes periodically.