Dynamic DNS - Custom Provider for namecheap.com

[Richard Durso]

I currently use namecheap.com for my domain registrar. They offer free dynamic name service to there customers. They provide a client for Windows and also reference clients for Linux. I do not intend to allow access to my NAS box, but I want FreeNAS to handle the Dynamic DNS because it has such a service and will be running 24x7. My intent is to reach other devices on the network via port mapping or VPN later.

Namecheap.com does not use the DynDNS protocol. However they have a knowledge support page showing how you convert the DynDNS format to the format they use.

https://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx/9249/0/nc-dynamic-dns-to-dyndns-adapter

That page has a lot of details, including error codes and meaning. A quick summary of the differences in protocol:

Below you can see the examples of 1) Namecheap dyndns URL format and 2) DynDNS URL format:

1) https://dynamicdns.park-your-domain...yourdomain&password=yourpassword&ip=ipAddress

2) http://{username}:{password}@ members.dyndns.org/nic/update?hostname=yourhostName&myip=ipAddress&wildcard=NOCHG&mx=NOCHG&backmx=NOCHG

I've added a new sub-domain "A" record set to IP address 127.0.0.1 as a place holder and enabled it for dynamic DNS via Namecheap's dashboard. Dynamic DNS on my FreeNAS should set it to the proper value. For this example we call the sub-domain "nas". And its under "mydomain.com".

I've configured FreeNAS with a custom provider with:

1) various short and fully qualified domain name and user name.
2) the password they provided when I enabled the dynamic DNS service.
3) Auxiliary parameters:
--dyndns_server_name dynamicdns.park-your-domain.com
--dyndns_server_url /update?

When I look at /var/log/messages I keep getting:

<Err1>Domain name not found</Err1><ResponseNumber>316153</ResponseNumber>

The response number according to URL above states "Namecheap dyndns returned 316153 (domain not found)".

I have no idea what parameters and values are being sent to namecheap as they are not being logged. In changing the domain and user name values the error message remains constant.

I think I have enough information from Namecheap to configure this, but I can not find proper examples of how to work with the auxiliary parameters.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[dlavigne]

Please create a ticket at bugs.freenas.org and post the issue number here.

 

[Richard Durso]

Issue #4104 created.

 

[pinoy83]

I'm having the exact same issue trying to setup ddns with namecheap. Any updates on this?

Here is a packet capture of the request coming from my FreeNAS-9.2.1.4-RELEASE-x64 (a688538)

Code:

*...t....)j....E..n..@.@.*
*.........',..P]+C...|0..*
*.............f....GET .u*
*pdate?system=dyndns&host*
*name=fqdn.mydomain.com&m*
*yip=127.0.0.1&wildca*
*rd=OFF&mx=fqdn.mydomain.*
*com&backmx=NO&offline=NO*
* HTTP.1.0..Host: dynamic*
*dns.park-_your-_domain.com*
*..Authorization: Basic b*
*2N0b2JlcjguaW5mbzoyNzhkO*
*GNiOGE0Mzc0MDUyOWViZTRmN*
*2U0YmQxZDBkMA==..User-_Ag*
*ent: inadyn-_mt.02.24.38 *
*bhoover@wecs.com..

For the example above:
fqdn.mydomain.com is my FQDN
127.0.0.1 is my client IP which I want to use to update the A record

Dynamic DNS Settings in FreeNAS:
Provider: ---------
Domain name: fqdn.mydomain.com
Username: mydomain.com
Password: <my password>
Confirm password: <my password>
Update period: 300
Forced update period: 300
Auxiliary parameters:
--dyndns_server_name dynamicdns.park-your-domain.com
--dyndns_server_url /update?

Edited:
Matt Graham posted a workaround which currently works.

As a reference, these settings work for namecheap domains:
Domain name: example.com
Username: example.com
Update period: 600
Aux Param: --dyndns_system custom@http_svr_basic_auth
--dyndns_server_name dynamicdns.park-your-domain.com
--dyndns_server_url /update?host=_SUBDOMAIN_&password=_PASSWORD_&domain=

Taken from https://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx/583/11/how-to-configure-ddclient

Target version is currently set to 9.3-BETA for the bug.

 

[Richard Durso]

I'm currently using the posted work around. Working fine,