Why We Recommend Software Clients

In theory there is little difference between a "software" DDNS client and a DDNS client built into a router. In fact, some routers actually use one of the software clients by embedding it into the router.

However, practice often differs from theory and in practice we have found that router based clients just don't provide the same level of reliability and user experience as software clients. For this reason, our current recommendation is that customers use a software client whenever possible, even if their router has a DDNS client built into it and even if that DDNS client has been certified by us.

Ten Reasons Software Clients Are Better

  1. They've been around longer and so have had many of the bugs worked out by now.
  2. The software clients generally have better logging so you can more easily determine if the updates are succeeding and if not why.
  3. Software clients can generally support all three of our services as well as supporting both Dynamic DNS and Custom DNS hosts at the same time.
  4. Software clients often have some facility for letting you know when there has been a problem (via e-mail, notification alert, etc).
  5. Software clients often support HTTPS in addition to HTTP for added security.
  6. Routers some times get moved from one location to another without the DDNS client info being changed, resulting in your host being updated with the wrong info.
  7. Software clients are less likely to start sending invalid/abusive updates as often as 1 every second (yes, we have actually seen a single router send as many as 86400 abusive updates in one day).
  8. When a bug is discovered in a software client (and there are always bugs) the client can often be patched in a day (or two at most). Router clients can generally not be fixed so quickly.
  9. Software clients can know when you are about to go off-line because you've issued a shutdown command and can send an update to set your host "off-line".
  10. Software clients can be configured to "force" an update every 28 days if your IP address has not changed, thereby keeping Dynamic DNS hosts in free accounts from expiring.