DynDNS drops domain

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  • Title: DynDNS drops domain
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  • Summary: DynDNS woes
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Today I went to visit a subdomain of mine that I use regularly, to find that it didn't work. After opening another tab to visit slickhouse.homeip.net it appeared that the DNS was non-existant. This domain is a 'catch-all' for my webserver, that ensures people can find their way around even if they mis-type a URL.

All my domains are registered with GoDaddy and the DNS is handled by ZoneEdit - but the aformentioned domain is provided by another Dynamic DNS provider - DynDNS. The reason for this is clear, if an update on ZoneEdit fails, I can fall back to DynDNS and force an update - and vice versa.

However, after finding a forced updated of the IP via DynDNS didn't work, I realised my account no longer existed either. It appears the DynDNS had deleted my account without any prior written notice!

And to think, 12 months ago, I was tempted to purchase their services for all of my domains. Imagine if you woke up one day to find your account (along with the related domains) had disappeared?

If any of you out there are currently using DynDNS' free service, let me know if you've experienced similar issues. If not, I'd recommend you look for an alternative Dynamic DNS service, as you too could end up in the same situation, without any written notice.

For those of you still looking for my 'fall-back' domain, it has been moved to hosting.slickhouse.com

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Comments

Matt -

I'm sorry to hear you're disappointed with the DynDNS service. Unfortunately, free accounts are deleted after 30 days of inactivity. This can be caused by lack of an update from the DynDNS Updater client or a failure to log into our system for 30 days. To prevent this, free users are encouraged to log in once a month or purchase an account upgrade.

All free users are reminded to log in once a month via email. If you are not receiving your emails from the DynDNS service, please check with your email provider.

Again, I'm sorry you're disappointed in the service you received. If you were not a free user, or if you have other questions, please contact our support team.

Kristin

Matt - In echo'ing Kristin's response, I'd like to encourage you to contact support@dyndns.com about this. Our logging system has entries showing that we e-mailed you about your account 30 days prior to expiration. I'd like to confirm that your got this e-mail.

Tom Daly (DynDNS)

The following has been sent to DynDNS' support team, in response to the above:

Hi Support,

As per Kristin and Tom's responses to a recent post of mine (http://slickhouse.com/2008-12-15/dyndns-drops-domain/) I'm contacting yourselves regarding the free DynDNS domain/account slickhouse.homeip.net/slickhouse that has expired.

I can confirm that I received the email reminding me that my account would expire within 30 days, however as per every other reminder email I've received, I simply forced an update of my IP using my router Smoothwall.

Over the past 12 months or so, this method has worked fine, as an update to the system ensured my account remained active. However, it seems that you've now changed this method, so that free account customers have to login (onto your site itself) to ensure that their account doesn't expire - an update via a client of the IP address is no longer sufficient.

Could you let me know if it's possible to re-instate my account (slickhouse)?

Also, could you confirm if/when you'll accept alternative payment methods, as last time I went to purchase Custom DNS, the site required VISA/Mastercard payment and wouldn't accept UK Maestro, or PayPal/Google Checkout. These alternative payment methods would entice myself and I bet many others, to pay for the other services that you offer.

Many thanks for your responses to my post, as it shows you care about your customers, rather than leaving us to find alternative methods.

Matthew Juffs

Matt

It appears that although DynDNS requested me to contact their support team, the email address provided only accepts emails if they are recognised as belonging to existing accounts. As my account has been removed, then my email address is not recognised.

I have since decided to re-activate my account by registering again.

Matt

LoL this one was funny!

Adamskii

Cheers for the xmas card guys, very cute! Im a bit crap and disorganised this year without a woman to remind me about this stuffs, but anyway have a great Xmas and new year :D

Adamskii

I received a reminder from dyndns about account inactivity. So then accessed my website a few times through their free redirect service, 2-3 weeks later tried again and found account deleted. Do you have to login to dyndns website every 30 days?

Stuart

I believe it is 30 days. Either a login or IP update should reset the counter. This is where my problem arose - as my IP is fairly sticky (Virgin Media) and hadn't changed for months, which resulted in the [free] account being closed. If you're finding DynDNS' free service to be awkward, look into ZoneEdit.

Matt

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