Ian McLeod of Redskye Technology Limited has graciously passed on for all how to use DNS with a dynamic IP address to access via your AyaNova Data Portal connection, and/or to access via your WBI, RI, and/or MBI
If you have an ADSL internet connection for your server via the LAN router ? but a DYNAMIC IP address is given to your router?s adsl port by your ISP (internet service provider) well for remote access users using the data-portal a problem can and will arise. From time to time the ISP will allocate a different IP address to that ADSL connection. For normal internet stuff this means nothing much?. But if you have ports open and try to run services for remote users there is an issue?
For outside connections it will mean that the IP address has changed. HOWEVER the AyaNova config.txt file that is on your remote computer will still request a connection FROM THE OLD IP ADDRESS ? which of course is now wrong and will not work. The basic fix is to edit that config.txt file with the new IP address (and port number?) But this is a pain and the outside user will have no way to find out what the IP address is? The same issue arises again when it changes again.
The solution is DNS.
You need a domain name ? the IP of which is known to DNS servers.
When you request a connection to a domain name ? a DNS lookup request goes to the DNS server ? and that tells your traffic what the IP address is.
Lots of routers have a setup page for NO-IP.org and DYDNS.org. (there are many of these).
If you open an account and get a name ? you can enter this into your router?s setup page for this function.
Once this is all working if your ISP changes your external IP address your router immediately notifies NOIP or DYDNS or whoever what the NEW IP address is ? and THEIR DNS service now knows what your new IP address is. So when a remote PC tries to connect to (in my case http//redskye.no-ip.org) to the domain the IP address is served up to the remote client and the connection to the raw actual IP address can be made. All I did was set up the service (I already had it actually) and changed the data in the remote user’s PC’s config.txt file so that in the line of text that contains the internet IP address of the remote server I put the domain name not the raw IP address ? followed of course by the port number as before. Now if my ADSL IP address changes the remote user can still login because DNS will send the traffic to the new IP address ? and just as before ? because it?s on the correct port the routers firewall will allow the connection AND forward the traffic to the correct LOCAL IP address ? which of course is the server. Now you will still need to on the LAN side use a fixed IP for the AyaNova server ? because port forwarding rules will require this ? otherwise the router may not know which PC (the server on the LAN) to forward the traffic to.
So to summarise:
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First set up the AyaNova remote access web application following the installation steps, confirming successful testing including testing on the server and within the local area network using the server’s private static ip. Then …
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Go to one of the dynamic DNS service providers (i.e. NO-IP.org ; DYDNS.org) create an account and get a free or paid for domain name.
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Go to your ADSL router or cable modem configuration/setup page as provided for this function and enter the relevant details the DYDNS company has provided (user name password etc.) You may have to reboot the router ? maybe not?.
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Login to your DNS provider?s account where I think you can check that your router has now updated them with your ADSL IP address.
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You can enable ?respond to ping? on some routers firewalls/security settings?. If you do that ? you can ping the domain name from a command prompt to see if its working. Once confirmed disable the ?respond to ping again? for security reasons.
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You can try a test connection to the domain as per various Ayanova procedures domain name but?
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Now edit the client config.txt file (that already works) to contain the domain name instead ? test it that way. If it works ? that?s all you have to do!
Once it works it will always work ? even if the internet IP address of the server changes?
Of course different routers have different looking DNS pages ? and different providers look a bit different ? but all are essentially similar.