There comes a time when you are at work, travelling, or somewhere where you “really wish you could access your home computer(s).” Some people are fortunate enough to have static ips so they can simply access their computer by using their static IP. For most of us, we have to deal with dynamic IPs. For years now I have been using a great service (DynDNS.org). With dynDNS, you can set up a domain name that will point to your computer, and will update when your IP changes, so you will always be able to connect to your home computers. Sound cool? Here is how to set it up:
There are 3 basic parts to configuring DynDNS.
- Create an account. Go to DynDNS.org and at the top right of the page, click on the “Sign up now” link. Once you have an account, log in and choose a domain name from DynDNS’s options. Then, from the computer that you want to be able to access from outside of your home, add a host, and your public IP will automatically show up in the web browser form. Once your choosen domain name now has a public ip as a pointer, you will need to configure your router or DNSUpdate software so it knows that a computer on your home network is mydomina.dyndns.org
- Set up your router or use DNSUpdate software. If you are fortunate enough to have a netgear router, there are options (read your manual) where you can configure your router to work with DynDNS. If you do not have a router that supports DynDNS, you can use DNSUpdate software and configure it.
- Setting Up Port Forwarding. Once you get your domain set up to point to your home computer, you will need to set up port forwarding on your router so when the request for mydomain.dyns.org comes to the router, it will know where to forward the request. You will need to figure out how you want to access your home computer. If you want to access your computer using SSH, you will need to forward port 22 to the computer you set up mydomin.dyns.org to point to. If you want to be able to use Timbuktu to connect to your home computer, you will need to set up port forwarding to port 407. Your home computer, behind the router, has a private address. (192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x). In the port forwarding section of your router configuration, you will choose which private IP will listen to all outisde traffic. (ex) forward all incoming traffic on port 22 to 192.168.0.4 if 192.168.0.4 is the computer you want to be able to SSH from outside of your home network. Not sure what port your application uses? http://www.iana.org/assignments/port-numbers
Confusing? Need help? Let me know.
