Dynamic DNS

[Kincaid]

I used to be fairly good in Linux, but then I fell out of the fold. It's been about 7 years since I used Linux regularly. The best way I know to get into something is by starting projects. I find something I'd like to get done and try to make it work. I thought I'd try to set up an Apache web server and later a Samba from a box in my house. Since my ISP doesn't change my IP Address very often, this by itself isn't difficult. However, I have two domain names and wanted to also have one of those refer to this server. Seems pretty easy - just sign up for DynDNS. Free, if you want to use their domain, and only $15-$30 per year for using your own. Not bad.

Not bad, except that I hate to use a service for something when I should be able to do it myself (money isn't an issue, I just hate the black box effect).

I vaguely recall doing something with dynamic DNS in a Linux class in college, but I have no idea what we did. It seemed as though we set up BIND and did something to notify DNS servers ourselves. Does anyone know how you can manually notify your name servers of an IP Address change?

[rcgreen]

The problem is that there needs to be an authoritative
name server for your domain, and it needs to be on a fixed
address. You either pay for a fixed address, or you pay
someone like Dyndns to be the name server for you.

[Kincaid]

The problem is that there needs to be an authoritative
name server for your domain, and it needs to be on a fixed
address. You either pay for a fixed address, or you pay
someone like Dyndns to be the name server for you.

I don't understand. Since I don't have a fixed address, there must be a means to update the name servers when it changes. How is it that DynDNS can do this but a regular person cannot?

[rcgreen]

How is it that DynDNS can do this but a regular person cannot?

When you subscribe to Dyndns, you run a program on your system
that updates the Dyndns server each time your address changes.
The reason you can't do it alone is that you do not own a name server.
(one that you run on a dynamic IP address doesn't qualify)

[Kincaid]

When you subscribe to Dyndns, you run a program on your system
that updates the Dyndns server each time your address changes.
The reason you can't do it alone is that you do not own a name server.
(one that you run on a dynamic IP address doesn't qualify)

That makes sense. So a company or person must own a nameserver, which itself must have a static IP adress, in order to dynamically change an IP address. In my case, my ISP only changes my address every 6 months or less. Am I able to register my domain with a DNS server, or does that require a paid service as well, do you know?