Custom DNS

This guide will help you get started with our Custom DNS service.

What is Custom DNS? What can I do with it?

Custom DNS, like our Dynamic DNS service, assigns your easy-to-remember domain name to your home network for quick remote access. This allows you to reach services at home, such as a personal website, security camera, VPN, game server, and more, using a simple web address like yourdomain.com instead of a meaningless, ever-changing IP address like 123.45.67.89.

How is Custom DNS different than Dynamic DNS?

Unlike Dynamic DNS, which offers a single host record and MX record using one of our pre-existing domain names, Custom DNS works with your own registered domain, supports a wide variety of record types, allows you to create up to 75 records, and a number of other benefits. Both services feature dynamic IP updates using update clients.

How do I set it up?

Please complete the following steps to get started with the Custom DNS service. Please note that this guide provides only a brief overview on some topics, such as domain registration. For more information, please see our What is a Domain Registration? and Domain Transfers articles.

1. Install your service

The first step is to set up the services you want to run from your network. You should decide what you would like to access remotely, and install hardware or software in your network to accomplish this. For example, you could host a personal website for family photos with XAMPP and SPGM; remotely access files, shared printers and other devices with OpenVPN; or install a web-enabled surveillance camera for home security.

Once you have chosen the services you wish to use, installed them, and tested them locally, you may move to the next step. (Please note: DynDNS.com cannot provide support for service installation or setup. You will need to contact the software or hardware authors for more help.)

2. Configure port forwarding and firewalls

Now that your service is installed and running, the next step is to configure your network to allow remote access. To do this, you will need to configure your router's port forwarding settings. Please visit PortForward.com for a list of guides by router and service. (For reference, any service you can access with a web browser uses HTTP on TCP port 80). You will also need to allow this port in your firewall software, such as Windows Firewall or Norton Internet Security.

3. Test your network

When you have configured port forwarding in your router, you will need to test your network externally (from outside). To do this, get your network's external IP address from CheckIP, then have a friend try to visit the IP address or use our Open Port Tool to test your network. If your network is configured properly, you can continue to the next step; if not, please see the Troubleshooting section for some common problems.

4. Create an account, Custom DNS and Domain Registration

Now that your services are installed and working, and visitors are able to reach your services from outside of your network, you can begin using Custom DNS. Create an account, then purchase Custom DNS for your domain name. At this point there are two possibilities regarding your domain registration (ownership of the domain name):

  • Your domain registration doesn't exist yet. If you are creating a brand new domain, you can register this domain name when you create the Custom DNS service.
  • Your domain registration already exists with another company. You have two options: you can transfer the domain registration to DynDNS.com when you create the Custom DNS service, or you can leave the domain registration with the current provider (registrar). In either case, you will need to log into your account with the domain's current registrar and change the nameserver list from their servers to ours. This is called nameserver delegation, and changes which servers are responsible for answering queries about your domain name.

    Before you change your domain's delegation, please read our article on Changing DNS Providers Without Downtime to make sure the transition is as painless as possible. When you are ready, log into your registrar account, delete all other nameservers in the list, then enter ours:

    Custom DNS Nameservers

    Server IP Address
    ns1.mydyndns.org   (Required) 204.13.248.76
    ns2.mydyndns.org   (Required) 204.13.249.76
    ns3.mydyndns.org 208.78.69.76
    ns4.mydyndns.org 91.198.22.76
    ns5.mydyndns.org 203.62.195.76

    Note: If your domain is already registered with DynDNS.com, but you are using Custom DNS for the first time, you can use the Set to Custom DNS Nameservers button on your registration's Edit Nameservers page to make these changes for you.

It can take an hour or two for your Custom DNS zone to fully activate, during which time the zone will be marked as "inactive" on its configuration page. Once the zone has fully activated, you should be able to begin using it: have your friend (or the Open Port Tool) test your network using the domain (e.g. http://www.mydomain.com).

If all goes well, you should see the same results as using the IP address directly, which indicates that your Custom DNS zone is working properly.

5. Install an update client

The last step is to configure an update client, which will keep your Custom DNS hosts up-to-date with your network's external IP address. If your camera or router has a section for DynDNS.com (sometimes DynDNS.org), this is an update client. Enter your username, password and hostname, and the router will tell us when your IP changes so that your Custom DNS hosts will always be correct.

If you do not have a hardware update client, you can install a software update client on a computer anywhere in the network (typically your server computer). We recommend using a software client whenever possible, since they are easier to troubleshoot and configure than hardware update clients.

Troubleshooting

This section strictly covers the Custom DNS service. If you are having problems setting up a server for the first time, please see our general troubleshooting article Why Can't I Connect to My Server?

Remember, if your Custom DNS host resolves properly to the correct IP address for your network, any problems you are experiencing are not related to your DNS service. To check your host's DNS, use our DNSCog dns lookup and report utility; If your service resolves, the issue is not a DNS error.

My domain does not resolve.

Once you check your service's DNS, there are a few reasons your domain does not resolve correctly:

  • Zone is inactive: Please see below.
  • Domain isn't registered: Your domain needs to be registered before Custom DNS can provide service. You can register your domain with DynDNS.com here.
  • Typo: Except in special cases, you should create your Custom DNS zone for the second-level domain name, such as domain.com. If you created the service for www.domain.com, it will not resolve properly. You can cancel the Custom DNS zone for a full refund on its configuration page, then simply create a new zone without the www.

My Custom DNS zone is inactive.

Custom DNS can take up to two hours to fully activate after delegation. If your Custom DNS service has not activated, make sure that your domain is properly delegated to our Custom DNS nameservers:

Custom DNS Nameservers

Server IP Address
ns1.mydyndns.org   (Required) 204.13.248.76
ns2.mydyndns.org   (Required) 204.13.249.76
ns3.mydyndns.org 208.78.69.76
ns4.mydyndns.org 91.198.22.76
ns5.mydyndns.org 203.62.195.76

Please note: If DynDNS.com is not your registrar, you will need to log into your account with the domain's registrar and make the changes there. Also, remember to replace the previous nameservers with our own; if other nameservers are in the delegation list, Custom DNS will not activate. Furthermore, if your zone was already active and foreign name servers are added to the delegation, the zone will deactivate within two weeks.

For more information, please see our article on zone inactivity here.

How do I change DNS providers without downtime?

Please see our Changing DNS Providers Without Downtime article for more information on making a smooth, painless transition between providers.

How do I receive mail at my domain?

Please see our E-mail, Mail Exchangers and DNS article for more detail on MX records and their role in mail delivery. You can host the mail yourself using a mail server such as Microsoft Exchange or Exim, or use our MailHop Forward and MailHop Outbound services to receive and send mail for your domain without running a mail server.

I don't want to delegate the whole domain, just a subdomain.

Please see our Using Custom DNS with Subdomains article for more help on delegating single subdomains to DynDNS.com without affecting the rest of your domain's DNS.

I need reverse DNS. Does Custom DNS provide this?

By default, your ISP controls your reverse DNS records, and will usually create the necessary PTR records for you upon request. If you have a large block of static IP addresses and you would like to control them through DynDNS.com, please see our Reverse DNS in Custom DNS article for detailed instructions. Alternatively, you can use MailHop Outbound to stop anti-spam rejections for using a dynamic IP and/or lacking reverse DNS.

I would like to switch from Custom DNS to Secondary DNS.

Please see our Custom/Secondary DNS Conversion guide for more information.

Which TLDs are supported by Custom DNS?

Custom DNS supports nearly all of the top-level domains available to the ICANN root servers, includingall global top-level domains (gTLD) such as .com, .edu, .gov, .org, .net; sponsoredTLDs such as .aero, .biz, .coop, .info, .name, .pro; and nearly all of the country code TLDs (ccTLDs). You can see our full list of supported TLDs here.

At this time, Custom DNS does not fully support .nl or .dk due to registry restrictions. Some customers may also have issues with .de registrations; please see our .de Domains in Custom DNS article here for more details.

Can I use a third-party DNS provider with Custom DNS?

To preserve the integrity of our Custom DNS service, we do not allow transfers from our nameservers to any third party. If your domain delegation includes any "foreign" nameservers, the Custom DNS service will deactivate within two weeks of the change, or fail to initially activate until the extraneous nameservers are removed.

If you wish to host your own primary DNS and use other companies (including DynDNS.com) as secondary providers for the domain,please see our Secondary DNS service. Secondary DNS will function if other DNS providers are listed in the delegation, though it will still refuse transfer requests to these servers.

My registrar needs me to pre-activate the zone before I can delegate.

Please see our Changing DNS Providers Without Downtime article for instructions on pre-activation and safe delegation.