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DynDNS ends free services

linktracking.dyn.com

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Re: DynDNS ends free services

#31

Post by Jailbird »

unreal37 wrote: post #28
emptybits wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What hostility or ridiculousness did you see? I've been on Dyn forever, as a free user to keep a host entry for one remote, nonprofit dynamic-IP server. Starting exactly a year ago, once per month they sent me an email with a link I'd click to keep my free hostname(s) active. Seemed reasonable.

I used to be on EasyDNS and they got acquired by DynDNS many years back. They really have been trying to kick off the free users for a long time. Anyone who's hung on til now is a survivor. They dropped from 5 free hostnames to 2, in 2010. And they have been enforcing this "log into your account monthly" since at least that time. Not 1 year, but at least 4 years or more. That's how I lost my free hostname - because I…

Same issue here but I have set a reminder for every 2 weeks and luckily haven't missed.

I have my parents' old router set to use this - and really have no good way out.

I guess I give 'em money. Oh well.

Re: DynDNS ends free services

#32

Post by pacificmint »

emptybits wrote: post #19
cookiecaper wrote: post #11

dyndns has been getting progressively more hostile to free users for years. I thought it was ridiculous years ago when I switched to no-ip.org, I'm surprised that anyone has held on this long.

What hostility or ridiculousness did you see? I've been on Dyn forever, as a free user to keep a host entry for one remote, nonprofit dynamic-IP server. Starting exactly a year ago, once per month they sent me an email with a link I'd click to keep my free hostname(s) active. Seemed reasonable.

They were one of those services that would repeatedly make the free service worse, in an attempt to get you to upgrade.

At first they changed it so you need to touch your account once every 30 days to keep it active. Using the automated updater counted as touching it.

Then they changed it where the automated updater didn't count anymore, so now you needed to log in manually every 30 days.

Once I didn't get their email, and they purged my whole account. I had to recreate it as a new account, and by now they had severely restricted the list of domains that were available for the free service, so I couldn't get the old domain back.

I realize it was a free account, and what not to do with gifted horses, but sending you an email every 30 days and purging your account if you don't click on it within a very short window is a little too annoying for me.

In a way this step now is more honest. If you don't want the free users, don't offer the free service.

Re: DynDNS ends free services

#34

Post by korzun »

Brandon0 wrote: post #30
korzun wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another vote for https://freedns.afraid.org , the guy who runs it is a great dude.

Exactly what he said.

I just wanted to back it up as one of their paying customers for the past 5 years who had plenty of interaction with the owner.

Ironically your comment brings even less value to the table.

Re: DynDNS ends free services

#36

Post by wvenable »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #2

I feel sorry for those people who have routers that only have built-in support for DynDNS. :(

Yeah, that's why I still used the service even when they went more annoying. I guess I'll need to finish the work I started on moving to an alternative solution.

Re: DynDNS ends free services

#38

Post by __david__ »

ah- wrote: post #27

Is anyone here hosting their own dyndns setup?

Yeah, I wrote a little http endpoint that I access with curl in a cron job. The server updates my master DNS git repo and which then updates the data in Route 53.

The DNS stuff is based on a Perl module I wrote called Net::DNS::Create [1]. It allows you to use a little DSL-ish language to create your DNS entries, then compile them into whatever DNS backend you want (Bind, TinyDNS, and Route53 are supported out of the box, and all have been used in production at some point). A quick example of what this might look like is here: https://github.com/caldwell/net-dns-create/blob/master/creat...

[1] http://search.cpan.org/~david/Net-DNS-Create-v0.10.0/lib/Net...

Re: DynDNS ends free services

#39

Post by Stubb »

floatingatoll wrote: post #18

I started paying them a couple years ago for my DynDNS service, and have had no trouble in that time. I'm glad they chose to keep the service rather than shutting it down. And I'm especially glad to see them charging a small fee for a valuable service, rather than running it for free: https://blog.pinboard.in/2011/12/don_t_be_a_free_user/

Yeah, I thought about switching to a different provider for a few minutes but the time it would take is worth more than $20 to me. Plus, their free service has been working perfectly for years, so why switch now?

Re: DynDNS ends free services

#40

Post by bhaak »

floatingatoll wrote: post #18

I started paying them a couple years ago for my DynDNS service, and have had no trouble in that time. I'm glad they chose to keep the service rather than shutting it down. And I'm especially glad to see them charging a small fee for a valuable service, rather than running it for free: https://blog.pinboard.in/2011/12/don_t_be_a_free_user/

IMO they could have handled the transition to non-free better. But every time they took away some of the free stuff, you have seen popular outrage. They pissed off lots of people that could have been potential customers and I was one of them.

Their lowest price plan is 25$ per year. If I only would want the most basic feature, that is having 1 or 2 dynamic ip addresses bound to a specific DNS entry (not even wildcard or email redirection), that is too much. I would have gladly paid 5$ for that even if only to get rid of the 30 day renewal routine.

But when the time came for me to register my own domain, I didn't want DynDNS to do it. I've seen how they treated me when I was a non-paying customer.

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