DynDNS.com - Support -- Update Clients -- DynDNS Updater for Mac Installation Guide

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DynDNS Updater for Mac Installation Guide

This installation guide will help you to configure the DynDNS® Updater, and provide some basic troubleshooting for common configuration errors.

Please note: At this time, the daemon does not automatically launch on startup under Snow Leopard. You will need to launch it manually.

Setup

Setup

Download and Install

Before you begin, you will need to:

Once you have downloaded the client, you should drag the application into your Applications folder, start DynDNS Updater and add it to your dock.

Wizard/User Setup

The first step is to install the update daemon which runs as an administrator. Then you can enter your DynDNS.com username and password in the screen like below (or as part of the setup wizard not pictured).

Hostname Selection

This will allow the update client to automatically download all of your hostnames for you, as shown below:

Doing this will list all of your hosts that exist in your account but it does not automatically update them yet. Instead, you need to click on each host you want the client to update and then in the right panel select "Enable updating for this host". In this case, example2.dyndns.org has been set to be automatically updated. Notice that the colored sphere to the left of the hostname has turned from gray, which means disabled, to Green, which means enabled.

Also while editing the host, you have several other sections in the information panel under the Enable Updating option. The first is the Host Name box, which displays the current host you are editing. If you click the Edit link under the Host Name box, you will be taken to the DynDNS.com website where you can edit your host.

IP Detection

The next part is the Interface dropdown box.

There are several different selections in the dropdown box, depending on your networking configuration. The choices allow you to select how the update client is going to detect your IP address. Generally the two options you should use are either:

Web-based IP detection
Web-based IP Detection (Bypassing proxy)

Normally you should select Web-based IP detection as that will allow the client to go to our website to find your external IP. Sometimes if you are behind a proxy, using that option will not show your proper IP and instead shows the IP of the proxy you are using. In that situation you'll want to select Web-based IP detection (Bypassing proxy) as that will allow the client to detect your correct IP.

Selecting any other Interface will have the client use the IP assigned to that particular interface, but that will not always show your external IP, the one your ISP has assigned you, which is normally the IP you'd want to use.

The last piece of information displayed while editing your host is the Status field. This field will show any status messages sent back to the client when it tries to update. A status of OK will also display the IP your host was last updated to.

General Options

Once you have enabled all the hosts you want the client to update and set the hosts options, you need to configure the rest of its options. If you open the DynDNS Updater bar and select Preferences, you can continue with the configuration:

The first section you will see is the General options.

The first option enables or disables Growl support. Growl is a way to display popup notifications in an non-obtrusive way. If you do not have Growl installed then the option will be grayed out. If you do have Growl installed and you enable the Growl support, growl will display a notification when your IP has updated.

If you wish to install growl, which is a third-party application, you can visit http://growl.info/ to download it.

The second option is "Software Updates", which will notify you automatically when the update client has a newer version released so that you can make sure you use the latest version.

Security Options

The second section you can view is the Security section.

In this section you have the ability to turn off certificate validation. We recommend keeping this option enabled at all times as it will make sure that the SSL certificates used are valid for updates we publish, which helps keep your machine protected over the internet.

Post Configuration - Accounts

After you configure the client, there are two other useful menu options. The first is the Accounts options:

The first option is Add Account, which allows you to add additional accounts to the update client's configuration, in case you have several accounts with us that have hosts you wish to update at the same time.

Below that is the Remove Account option, which is selectable only if you have an account selected in the host list. In this case ExampleUser is selected:

The next option is Refresh Account Hosts. You only need to use this option if you have added hosts to your account so that the client is aware of the changes.

Post Configuration - Logging, and Diagnostics

In the menu you can also select the Tools menu, which allows for several diagnostic options.

The first choice is Open Log Viewer. This option will allow you to open and view the update client log to check on the client status.

Next is Clear Log Viewer, which will clear out the log viewer so you only see new information displayed.

The Mark Log option allows you to insert a tag into the log so that you can sectionalize the log in order to view new data as well as retaining the old data, unlike the Clear Log Viewer option.

The Filter Log Messages option allows you to select what information you want displayed and to hide the rest.

Using Open Daemon Log File will open the system log of the running daemon to view the status at an operating system level, instead of just the update client log itself.

Send Diagnostic Information will let you send an email to DynDNS.com's support staff including your logs so they can see what is happening for you. Please be sure to also include information about the trouble with the client you are having.

Pause Daemon will cause the update client to pause and not send updates until you unpause it.

Post Configuration - Uninstallation

If you wish to remove the client from your system, you can use the Uninstall DynDNS Updater option to do just that.

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