Im sure this has been asked before i juat can’t find where it has been - Maybe need to work on how to search Lemmy better. But…

Id like to eventually self host some sevices that require external access. While I have IpV6 addresses my IPV4 is dynamic.

Whats the best free way to be able to point some domains/ subdomains I have to my external dynamic IP and keep it updated. Im running OpenWrt on my router. - So possibly should be posting there.

Free Dyndns services seem to be a bit crap. Do I need to pay for a VPS? (seems to defeat the point of self hosting)

  • Wolfwood1@lemmy.worldEnglish
    62·
    9 months ago

    Self hosting doesn’t mean you should host everything yourself at home, using a VPS you manage (so the data inside it is still yours) is also a viable option for selfhosting. I myself host some services at home and a few others in a VPS.

    As for Dyndns, I’ve used a few providers over the years. DuckDNS is the one I’ve been using for 5 years or so and it’s not failed me once. Pretty happy with it.

    Maybe you could have a duckdns pointing to your dynamic IP and your domains / subdomains with a CNAME pointing to the dyndns address?

  • MehBlah@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    9 months ago

    I use afraid.org to keep my dynamic dns pointed at my routers ip. With afraid.org dns you only need a curl statement scheduled on the opendnswrt router to keep the dynamic ip updated.

  • BearOfaTime@lemm.eeEnglish
    4·
    9 months ago

    VPS with a tunnel between it and home services (Wireguard/Tailscale, etc)in my opinion is Best Way as it isolates your home gateway (no open ports, because you make outbound connections to your VPS), and let VPS handle Identity and Access Management

    (Or an equivalent isolating architecture).

    Alternatively, Tailscale has a Funnel feature which can route public traffic into your Tailscale network. Though I don’t love this approach, it does work for low-volume connections.

  • abeorch@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
    2·
    9 months ago

    Wow thanks everyone. I think I need to take another look at some of the DynDNS provides and digest all your great feedback.

    Id like to go beyond personal self hosting stuff and maybe run some stuff that requires Federation. Im just thinking at the moment.

  • traches@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    2·
    9 months ago

    If you can avoid it, don’t open ports in your firewall, don’t publish your home IP address, and keep everything behind a VPN. If only you and your family will be using these services, go with Tailscale or one of its competitors. Otherwise, VPS or cloudflare tunnel/competitor.

  • cizra@lemm.eeEnglish
    1·
    9 months ago

    How often does your IP actually change? Mine changes so rarely (during extended power outages, say) that I am able to just update my IP manually when it does.

    I even used to run my own authoritative DNS server at home (the one offered by my registrar isn’t configurable enough, think SRV and TXT records) - for that, I have a web UI at my registrar to set the IP addresses of the DNS server.

  • DontTakeMySky@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    9 months ago

    Many registrars let you buy a domain and set up dynamic DNS for it within their system so you can own a domain and get dyndns on it.

    Otherwise you could accomplish it with a VPS but you’d only need the smallest one available because it would just need to run nginx to forward to your home ip (and a small tool to update that IP when it changes). So you could probably get something for less than $5/mo.

  • bungle_in_the_jungle@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    9 months ago

    I use TailScale and their free Personal plan.

    Disclaimer though: I haven’t done much due diligence on it. It was easy to install when I first started self hosting with Umbrel and I use it so rarely that it’s good enough for my usage.