Getting started

Our dynamic DNS service will allow you to update the IPv4 and IPv6 address of your A and AAAA records of domains that you manage using dns.he.net through the use of a simple web request or using any dyndns compatible client. We do not currently charge for this service. it is included for free with your dns.he.net account.

Basic Configuration

To use the dynamic DNS feature, you will first need to create a domain or subdomain (the zone) that you want to use with the dynamic DNS service. Once you have created the zone, you will want to create an 'A' and/or a 'AAAA' record. If you wish to use the dynamic service with the primary domain, leave the 'Name' box empty otherwise enter the subdomain name. (ie for the subdomain of example.com "house.example.com", you would simply enter "house".) Now click on the 'enable entry for dynamic dns' checkbox. The address field will be auto populated with your current address or the localhost address for the record type (for an 'A' record that would be 127.0.0.1. For a 'AAAA' record, this would be ::1 ) and the TTL will automatically be set to 300 (5 minutes). Submit then entry. You have just enabled a record to be dynamic.

Note: The dynamic DNS update server uses the name of the record to determine what to update. Having more that one 'A' record or more than one 'AAAA' record will not have the desired effect.

You will be returned to the Edit Zone page. Dynamic records will be denoted with a pale blue row background as well as the

icon (generate). Click on the icon to generate the password that will be used for dynamic DNS update client. As of this writing, you only need to generate one key per domain name (only one is necessary for both the 'A' and 'AAAA' records). Generating multiple passwords for a given domain name will likely not have the desired effect.

Note: This behavior may change in the future as we make additional changes to the interface.

Basic Use

Update requests can be sent over http or https. The site is currently using a self signed certificate that was generated by our security team.

The most basic example:
https://[your domain name]:[your password]@dyn.dns.he.net/nic/update?hostname=[your domain name]

Autodetect my IPv4/IPv6 address:
% curl -4 "https://dyn.example.com:password@dyn.dns.he.net/nic/update?hostname=dyn.example.com"					
% curl -6 "https://dyn.example.com:password@dyn.dns.he.net/nic/update?hostname=dyn.example.com"					

Specify my IPv4/IPv6 address:
% curl "https://dyn.example.com:password@dyn.dns.he.net/nic/update?hostname=dyn.example.com&myip=192.168.0.1"					
% curl "https://dyn.example.com:password@dyn.dns.he.net/nic/update?hostname=dyn.example.com&myip=2001:db8:beef:cafe::1"

Authentication and Updating using GET

Note: The username is also the hostname. The password is sent using 'password='. This skips HTTP basic auth.

% curl "https://dyn.dns.he.net/nic/update?hostname=dyn.example.com&password=password&myip=192.168.0.1"
% curl "https://dyn.dns.he.net/nic/update?hostname=dyn.example.com&password=password&myip=2001:db8:beef:cafe::1"

Authentication and Updating using a POST

% curl "https://dyn.dns.he.net/nic/update" -d "hostname=dyn.example.com" -d "password=password" -d "myip=192.168.0.1"
% curl "https://dyn.dns.he.net/nic/update" -d "hostname=dyn.example.com" -d "password=password" -d "myip=2001:db8:beef:cafe::1"

Things to note about the dynamic DNS service

Your "username" is going to be the name of the record that has been tagged dynamic. ie You marked the A record for dyn.example.com as dynamic. Your username will be "dyn.example.com" You can tag an A or AAAA record by editing it once you have selected the zone. (check the box). Once you have "activated" the record to be dynamic, you will need to generate a key (or password if you prefer) for it. (click on the generate icon) to generate the key for the dynamic record. If you have tagged both an A and AAAA record to be dynamic, you will see the icon twice, it is only necessary to generate one key as it is bound to the name of the record and not the name/type. When making updates, you will need to make a separate update for ipv4 and ipv6.

Note:We may add an additional "myipv6=" option in the future.