DDNS - Dynamic DNS Explained

What is DDNS? So that's what we're going  to talk about in this video. Now DDNS stands for dynamic domain name system.

Now I  previously did a video where I talked about DNS, and if you're not familiar with what DNS does, I  highly recommend that you watch that video also and you can find that video on my youtube channel.  But in this video I'm going to talk about dynamic DNS. So just as a refresher as to what DNS does,  if you type in a web address in your web browser, DNS is what transforms that domain name  to an IP address.

So for example when you type in youtube. com in your web browser, the DNS  server will search through its database to find a matching IP address for that domain name, and when  it finds the IP, it'll transform that domain name to the IP address of the YouTube web server. In a  DNS database, a domain name such as youtube.

com, is mapped or joined to an IP address, and that  IP address must not change. In other words, it must be a static IP because if YouTube's  IP address changes to a new IP address, people will not be able to access YouTube's  website because youtube. com is still joined to the old IP address.

So if the IP address does  change, DNS will update their database with the new IP address for youtube. com, so people can find  YouTube. Now this may not sound like a big deal, however the problem is, is that it could take  up to 24 hours for DNS to update their database with the new IP and that is a problem because that  means that YouTube will lose up to 24 hours worth of business until DNS does the update.

And this  is the main reason why websites, organizations, and companies use static IP addresses and not  dynamic IP addresses. So DNS is used with static IP addresses but dynamic DNS is used with dynamic  IP addresses. A dynamic IP address is where an IP address gets an IP from a DHCP server, therefore  the IP address changes periodically.

Dynamic DNS is a service that allows you to access devices  that are in your home, such as a computer, router, or security camera, and you can  access them from anywhere in the world, even if your IP address changes. Dynamic DNS is  mainly used in homes because internet service that are used in homes are given a dynamic IP  and not a static IP. So let's do an example, so let's say you're at work and then you wanted to  access your home computer using Microsoft remote desktop.

So you would open up the remote desktop  service from your work computer and then you would type in the IP address for your home and then you  would type the password and then you're connected. So you already knew what the IP address was for  your home because you either wrote it down or maybe you memorized it, however since you have a  home account with your internet service provider, your IP address is dynamic and it will change  periodically and if it changes without you knowing about it, the next time that you want to  remote access your home computer, you will not be able to because you're typing in your old IP  address and not your updated one. So this is where dynamic DNS comes in.

Dynamic DNS allows  you to access your home computer even if your IP address changes. It allows you to create a  custom hostname, such as 'myhomepc. ddns.

org' or whatever and then you can link that hostname  to your computer. So if your home IP address does change, dynamic DNS will update the new IP address  and map it to your custom hostname automatically. So dynamic DNS will ensure that you will always  have access to your home computer even if your IP address changes.

So for example now let's say  you wanted to access your home computer again, but instead of typing your home's IP address,  you would type in your custom hostname that you created with dynamic DNS. So you would type in   'myhomepc. ddns.

org' and then you'll be connected. So no matter how many times your IP address  changes, it doesn't matter, because whenever you want to access a device in your home you will  always use your custom hostname instead of the IP address. And dynamic DNS will always make sure  that the correct IP address is mapped to your custom hostname.

And if you're interested  in getting a dynamic DNS service, there are several vendors that you can choose from, with  some you have to pay, but some are also free. So I'll put links of some of them in the description  below of this video and thank you for watching.