DDNS / DYNAMIC IP

DDNS (Dynamic Domain Name System) allows us to overcome the issues related to Dynamic IP Addresses, in attempting to connect to a DVR somewhere on the Internet whose IP Address may change at any time.

Instead of having to manually track changes in a DVR's IP Address over time, a third-party service will track those changes for us, and instead of connecting to a particular IP
Address that may or may not be valid, we instead connect to the third-party site, and they
redirect us automatically to the DVR at its current IP Address. The DDNS Service is able to track the changes in IP Address by receiving messages from the DVR whenever the DVR detects that its own IP Address has changed.

In situations where the DVR is behind a router on a Local Area Network (LAN), the router
must provide the DDNS support, not the DVR. The DVR will only use its DDNS functions in a situation where the DVR is assigned its IP address by the Internet Service Provider (ISP).

Your DDNS provider will prompt you to select a username and password. It will issue you a name server address that you will now use to connect to your DVR instead of using the IP.

The name server address will follow the following format:
http://username.dyndns.com

If the selected username is 'MyDVR', then the address in this instance will be:
http://mydvr.dyndns.com

The properties we will need to remember for our setup are:
Username: mydvr
Password: *****
Domain: dyndns.com

When you connect to this address, the DDNS provider will automatically redirect you to the current IP address of the DVR. Changes are reported automatically from the DVR or router, so the DDNS provider should always redirect you to the proper address.

1. Establish an account with a third-party DDNS provider.

2. Select a username and password.

* To Setup DDNS on a DVR that is directly connected to the Internet:

3. Go to the DVR System Setup -> Network menu.

4. Enable DDNS. Then, enter all the DDNS info, including:
a. Username (issued by the DDNS provider)
b. Password (needed for the DVR to report the IP to the DDNS provider)
c. Domain (the DDNS provider portion of the name server address)

5. Once you save the changes, the DVR will restart, and report its current IP to your DDNS provider. The name server address should be functional within 2 minutes.

* To Setup DDNS on a DVR that is on a LAN behind a router:

6. Make sure that your router supports DDNS.

7. Make sure that Port Forwarding has been set up on the router so that the incoming traffic on Ports 80 and 6100 are directed to the Private (LAN) IP Address of the DVR.

8. Go into the Web-based Setup Program of your router, and find the DDNS Setup section.

9. Enter the DDNS information, similarly to what is outlined in Step 4.

10. Once you save the changes, the router should restart, and report its current IP to
your DDNS provider. The name server address should be functional within 2 minutes.

There are several free third-party DDNS providers that can be used for this purpose.

- TZO.com
- dyndns.com
- no-ip.com

Here is a URL for a more comprehensive listing of DDNS Providers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNS_hosting_service