Custom domain and dynamic IP

Goal

Make home Raspberry Pi server accessible from outside with custom domain.

Environment

• Raspberry Pi with Raspbian Jessie Lite
• High speed internet at home (e.g. Fios), dynamic IP
• Appropriate ports are open: 80, 443, 23, etc.
• Own domain and access to DNS setting

Steps

1. Get an account at http://freedns.afraid.org/, and set up subdomains

2. From your RPi, do this: $ sudo apt-get install ddclient

3. Edit ddclient configuration.  Change BOLD strings to match with yours:

$ sudo vi /etc/ddclient.cf

Add these lines:

protocol=freedns
login=[email protected]
password='mypassword'
mysubdomain.mooo.com

At this point, if you don't have own domain, you can just use the subdomain "mysubdomain.mooo.com"

4. Change DNS setting for your custom domain: create new entry for CNAME and set its value to the subdomain.  Example, "CNAME Host=www.mydomain.com, Answer=mysubdomain.mooo.com"

5. Set up Port Forwarding in your router: port forwarding to RPi's IP.

Note

ddclient can be used to update OpenDNS also.  See, https://support.opendns.com/hc/en-us/articles/227987727

ddclient config example:

use=web, web=myip.dnsomatic.com

ssl=yes

server=updates.opendns.com

protocol=dyndns2

login=myuserid

password='mypassword'

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