Detecting the IP Change

To determine whether a client should update, it must have a reliable method to determine what its current IP address is so it can compare the current address to the last updated address. There are two methods.

Internal Method

A client may determine, automatically or through the input of the user, that it is directly connected to the Internet. The device would have a publicly addressable IP address. In this case, the optimal method is to obtain the IP address from the operating system’s network stack.

Web IP Detection (CheckIP)

A client may determine, automatically or through the input of the user, that it is not directly connected to the Internet. The client is on a machine with a private IP, usually on RFC 1918 space (10/8, 172.16/12, 192.168/16). In this case, the optimal method is to use web IP detection.

Dyn.rs operates a CheckIP service which may be used with clients that work with DynDNS.

Update Requests

After a change in IP address has been detected or a user alters any of their settings, the client should perform an update. All updates are sent using a well-formed HTTP request. The system will pass back a return code in the response body that the client needs to parse.

The HTTP Request

Updates can be performed over HTTP or SSL/TLS-encrypted HTTPS (preferred).

All requests should be sent to hostname dyn.rs. Hard coding the IP address is not acceptable as the IP address may change.

The update interface listens on ports 80 and 8245 for HTTP, and 443 for HTTPS. Port 8245 may be used to bypass transparent HTTP proxies. It is not necessary to open any incoming ports (or allow incoming ICMP) for updating.

Examples

These examples are provided only as samples, for better understanding of the process.

Authentication in URL

For web-browsers or utility programs (fetch, curl, lwp-request) that can parse authentication section in URL.

https://{username}:{password}@dyn.rs/v3/update?hostname={hostname}&myip={IP Address}

Curl command-line example

curl -ks -u {username}:{password} "https://dyn.rs/v3/update/?hostname={hostname}&myip={IP Address}"

Raw HTTP GET Request

Actual HTTP request should look like following fragment. Note that there is the bare minimum set of headers. Request should be followed by sending an empty line.

Fragment base-64-authorization should be represented by Base 64 encoded username:password string.

GET /v3/update?hostname=yourhostname&myip=ipaddress HTTP/1.0
Host: dyn.rs
Authorization: Basic base-64-authorization
User-Agent: Company - Device - Version Number

Please note that both GET and POST requests are permitted and will be processed.

Update Parameters

   hostname=johndoe.dyn.rs
or hostname=-
or hostname=

   hostname=johndoe.dyn.rs,home.johndoe.dyn.rs,work.johndoe.dyn.rs
or hostname=-,home,work
or hostname=,home,work

Return Codes

When updating a hostname, the response to the update request will be one of the short return codes described below, followed by one space or tab character, and the appropriate message (everything after the first blank character to the end of the line). If there is an error, clients should communicate to the user a brief description of the problem that the return code indicates. All the return codes are given in the response body, with appropriate HTTP codes that indicate success (2xx), client error (4xx), or server error (5xx).

If updating multiple hostnames, only one final code is returned. Return codes indicating a failure with the account or the system are also given only once.

Update Types

Successful Updates

There is only one return code which indicates a successful update. Code good indicates that the update was successful and that the IP address was changed in our system.

No Change Updates

A nochg indicates a successful update but the IP address or other settings have not changed. The only acceptable situation where this allowed is during client initialization when the host has already been set to the same IP address. Users may also be given the option to “force” an update. This can be used to verify the authentication credentials and the current IP address.

As this is fairly infrequent, repeated instances of nochg updates will result in the host being blocked. Users should not be allowed to repeatedly force updates.

While it is not expected that the clients will prevent users from doing this, the client itself should strenuously avoid performing updates which would result in this return result.

Fatal Updates

Any failed update attempt is fatal which means that all further updates will also fail until the user has taken some sort of corrective action. For this reason, any failed update attempt should cause the client to be disabled until the situation is corrected and the client is manually re-enabled by the user.

Additionally, because the update may fail for a number of different reasons, the client needs to provide some method of communicating with the user that the update has failed and why. Some suggestions include:

• Logging a message in the general log window for the router (assuming it has one)
• Logging a message to a log window specific to the Dyn Update Client
• Generating an error message to an email address configured by the user
• Communicating to an external process running on the users desktop

Many of these errors involve configuration mistakes within the client or inconsistencies between the client configuration and the user’s account status; in all of those cases, the client must stop updating until the user has corrected the problem. Retrying the update automatically in those cases is abuse and may result in client blocks.

Account-Related Errors

The codes below indicate that the client is not configured correctly for the user’s account. These return codes are given just once. The client must stop updating until the user confirms that the problem has been resolved.

Update Complete

The codes below indicate that the update of a hostname was completed successfully.

Note that, for confirmation purposes, good and nochg messages will be followed by the IP address that the hostname was updated to. This value will be separated from the return code by a space.

Hostname-Related Errors

The codes below indicate a problem with a specific hostname. The client must stop updating that hostname until the user confirms that the problem has been resolved.

Agent-Related Errors

Server Error Conditions

The codes below indicate server errors that will have to be investigated. The client must stop updating and ask the user to contact Dyn support. The client must not resume updating until 30 minutes have passed or user confirms that the problem has been resolved.