As referenced in the first part of my Secure Connection series, you need to know the IP address of your router. If you are behind the router, this is easy, but what if your router/cable modem/dsl changes its address. This happens from time to time, so it would be easier to just assign it a name. This is where a dynamic dns service comes in.

Without going into too much detail, DNS is how blog.infinitepursuits.org in your browser knows to go to the IP address of the server my site is hosted on. But what about a router where your address can change daily, weekly or monthly?

There are a host of services that will allow you to update this number. I personally use dyndns.org, though Open Directory has a whole list of these services.

Once you have registered an account (for free) you need to have a way of updating this information. Many routers have this built in, however if yours does not, you can run a program on your Server that can update the address for you. Dyndns.com has an updater, and if you google “dynamic dns update client” you will find many apps for whatever OS you run. I have used ddclient under linux for many years now.

That is it, now you can create your own easy to remember name for your computer.