From: David J. Dachtera [djesys.no@spam.comcast.net]
Sent: Wednesday, August 23, 2006 10:15 PM
To: Info-VAX@Mvb.Saic.Com
Subject: Re: ANN: DynDNS update client for VMS

Mark Daniel wrote:
> 
> David J. Dachtera wrote:
> > Mark Daniel wrote:
> >
> >>David J. Dachtera wrote:
> >>
> >>>Mark Daniel wrote:
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>>Recent discussion of a DynDNS update client
> >>>>
> >>>>  http://www.dyndns.com/services/dns/dyndns/
> >>>>
> >>>>in this forum prompted me to do something I'd been meaning to for years
> >>>>- put together a native version for VMS and move the update duties from
> >>>>my PC to my VMS system.  It has now been running for some four weeks
> >>>>without too many hiccoughs so you are welcome to give it a go as well.
> >>>>It requires the HP [Open]SSL product to be installed and started.
> >>>>
> >>>>A complementary application included, DynDNSrpt, is a CGI Web server
> >>>>application that can be used as a basic reporting tool for the above
> >>>>application (should be suitable for Apache, OSU, Purveyor and WASD).
> >>>>
> >>>>Setup, build instructions and revision log for each may be found in the
> >>>>source code each of the respective applications once restored.
> >>>>
> >>>>A ZIPed source-code kit (it is assumed users will be VMS
> >>>>enthusiasts/hobbiests with their own compiler) is available from
> >>>>
> >>>>  http://wasd.vsm.com.au/wasd/
> >>>>
> >>>>Hope it's useful.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>Just wondering if this has any advantage over the WGET approach?
> >>
> >>Don't know David.  I'm aware of the DCL-based utility that uses WGET
> >>because of the recent discussion here that mentioned it.  I didn't use
> >>it as a reference when putting together my own though and so I'm not
> >>aware of what it can (or can't do).
> >
> >
> > As I use it, the WGET approach works like this:
> >
> > 1. "Visit" a URL that returns "your" IP address as viewed by the outside
> > world (the internet).
> >
> > 2. "Visit" a second URL that causes the update to occur.
> >
> > A little bit of DCL in between does the job.
> 
> That's the gist.
> 
> There's a bit more to it of course.
> 
> DynDNS' specifications have a number of policies regarding client
> behaviour.  These, amongst other requirements, limit the number of
> accesses to their web-based client IP identification service in a given
> period, and require that the update service only be accessed when the
> client's IP address has actually changed. Poor client behaviour can
> result in being blocked by DynDNS (someone has reported to me this
> happened to them when a local modification to their VMS-based client
> made it a little too eager to keep DynDNS informed :-)  Various DynDNS
> update service responses should be parsed and behaviour modified
> appropriately.  And so forth.

Mine runs nightly, in batch (of course!).

A caveat would be that your address needs to be updated at least every
30 days, whether the IP address has changed or not or you will receive a
de-activation e-mail with a grace period.

My update job dropped off the queue for some reason, and that's what
happened to me a month later.

> Of course there are other bells-and-whistles that make the basic
> functionality of any application more useful or pleasant to use and
> DynDNSupd is no different.
> 
> The 80-20 rule (or variant) applies here as much as anywhere.

Whatever works for ya!

-- 
David J Dachtera
dba DJE Systems
http://www.djesys.com/

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