Netgate Discussion Forum
    • Categories
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Users
    • Search
    • Register
    • Login

    DDNS hostname options

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved DHCP and DNS
    5 Posts 3 Posters 2.0k Views
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • P
      pfsensebokler.com
      last edited by

      I'm interested in using DDNS to support VPN access to my home network. I am not interested in providing public (or private) access to any individual hosts or services (http, ftp, etc). I emphasize this because I think it might make a difference in how things are set up. With that background, let me get on to my question:

      It seems that the DDNS providers have a domain(s), and they assign your hostname as a subdomain. For example, the DDNS provider uses "ddnsprovider.com", and they would assign a subdomain (e.g. glimpse.ddnsprovider.com) which I could then use to reach the WAN interface on my pfsense fw. At least this is my understanding of the hostname assignment process.

      However, what I would prefer is something along these lines: I would like to use a hostname that is associated with a domain name that I own; e.g. glimpse.com, and use "mypfsensefw.glimpse.com" as the hostname. Unfortunately, my hosting provider (hostgator) is not into this - at all. However, I can create a subdomain manually from the cPanel interface.

      And finally, my question: Is there a "good" (see below) way to use all of the above to create a hostname that uses my domain rather than one the DDNS provider provides, and still have it updated?

      "Good" for me is that I can generate an OpenVPN client config in pfsense that works with my Viscosity client without nagging, and manually updating things.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • C
        cmb
        last edited by

        Just CNAME your domain's hostnames to your DDNS name.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • MikeV7896M
          MikeV7896
          last edited by

          Some domain registrars (NameCheap, Google, others) provide the ability to use your own domain name with some dynamic A entries. You might need to set up a custom DDNS provider if they're not pre-configured in pfSense.

          The S in IOT stands for Security

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • P
            pfsensebokler.com
            last edited by

            @cmb:

            Just CNAME your domain's hostnames to your DDNS name.

            OK, so if I've got this, I will create a CNAME record in my DNS zone at hostgator which has the DDNS-assigned name (glimpse.ddns.com) as the canonical name (on the right-hand side) , and my preferred name (mypfsensefw.glimpse.com) as the alias (on the left-hand side)…

            mypfsensefw.glimpse.com  CNAME  glimpse.ddns.com

            Is that correct?

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • C
              cmb
              last edited by

              Yeah that's correct.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • First post
                Last post
              Copyright 2025 Rubicon Communications LLC (Netgate). All rights reserved.