How can I auto start ddclient on pfsense

pfsenseboonie

Hi all,

I've installed ddclient on pfsense and it is mostly working except for the autostart on reboot.

ddclient says to run as a daemon I must add


ddclient_enable="YES"

to /etc/rc.conf

I did this but after I reboot ddclient is not started and furthermore, /etc.rc.conf is gone.

Is there a way to do this in pfsense?

More specifically after I do a symlink of ddclient -> ddclient.sh in /usr/local/etc/rc.d
do I need to put ddclient_enable="YES" or ddclient.sh_enable="YES" into /etc/rc.conf.local

Thanks.

doktornotor

Why would you do any such thing?

http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Dynamic_DNS

pfsenseboonie

@doktornotor:

Why would you do any such thing?

http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Dynamic_DNS

My "WAN" interface is a private address that plugs into the the ISP router private LAN. It is this router that has the real public IP. So the built in dynamic dns does not work for me.

doktornotor

You're doing it wrong, double/multi-NAT sucks. Badly. Other than that, use /etc/rc.conf.local

pfsenseboonie

@doktornotor:

You're doing it wrong, double/multi-NAT sucks. Badly. Other than that, use /etc/rc.conf.local

Yeaaahhh, that works. :)
Thanks!

It's the only choice I have from the ISP. A router/modem, and I don't want to mess around with the pfsense NAT. I'd like it to run just as is.

phil.davis

My "WAN" interface is a private address that plugs into the the ISP router private LAN. It is this router that has the real public IP. So the built in dynamic dns does not work for me.

I have pfSense systems with private WAN behind front-end ADSL routers. They update the DynDNS name to match the public IP at the front of ADSL router, no problem. Uses the built-in Dynamic DNS available in the pfSense GUI. That uses checkip.dyndns.org to find the real front-end public IP. The built-in code supports lots of dynamic DNS providers.
So I am not sure why it does not work for you.

wallabybob

@phil.davis:

So I am not sure why it does not work for you.

Perhaps because when pfSense WAN interface has private IP address it doesn't closely track the real public address, polling checkip.dyndns.org only once a day at 1am if I reall correctly.

phil.davis

@wallabybob:

@phil.davis:

So I am not sure why it does not work for you.

Perhaps because when pfSense WAN interface has private IP address it doesn't closely track the real public address, polling checkip.dyndns.org only once a day at 1am if I reall correctly.

Good thought - I forgot to say that I edit the cron job /usr/bin/nice -n20 /etc/rc.dyndns.update so it runs/checks every 5 minutes. (Install Cron package so you can make persistent edits to cron jobs like this) That gives ~5 minute response time to changes of public IP on my ADSL front-end.