What is Remote Access and How Can I Use It?

remote access

Remote access is the ability to access a computer or device remotely. It sounds simple enough, right?

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What are Name Servers?

Name servers perform the critical task of translating domain names to the IP address needed to connect online. You can think of them like a phone book. They hold all of the IP addresses of all the domain names that are hosted on them. If it weren’t for name servers saving all of the records of domain names, you would have to know the IP address of every single website that you visit. Visiting the No-IP website would not be as simple as typing in www.noip.com into your browser, you would have to type the actual IP address http://8.23.224.107.
Name Servers

When you register a domain and host a website, you are able to choose who handles your name server records. If you delegate your domain to No-IP, our Plus Managed DNS handles your websites DNS. Choosing a managed DNS provider is a wise decision if you rely heavily on your website and hate the thought of experiencing any downtime. How much would website downtime cost you?

Related article:
What is DNS?

 

No-IP Free Dynamic DNS [VIDEO]

No-IP Remote Support Success Story

A few weeks ago, we had a user contact our No-IP Remote Support team. The user, Martin, was trying to configure his network so he could monitor his businesses web cameras from home.  Martin isn’t a technician, our service was recommended to him by a friend. He admitted that he wasn’t that computer savvy and that after spending hours trying to figure it out, he was ready to throw his computer out the window.

 

We quickly verified that the No-IP service we set up correctly and determined that Martin was having the same problem a majority of our user’s experience, Port Forwarding their Router.  Port Forwarding is the final and in many cases the most puzzling piece of setting up your remote access.  It is a stumbling block for many users because documentation is limited and because there are so many different router manufacturers as well as changes between firmware versions.

Even though we are not a router manufacturer, we always like to go the extra mile and do our best to help users when they get stuck.  Recently we’ve launched a pilot service that allows our Technical Support Team to remotely log into a users computer and help get our clients online.

Martin agreed to participate in the program and our Support Technician, Alex, emailed him a link to get the remote view support session initiated.

Once logged in, Alex was able to diagnose the problem almost immediately and explained that by default, IP cameras are set to “Listen” on port 80. However, port 80 connections are typically blocked by ISP’s (Internet Service Providers).  Alex set Martin’s router to forward port 8080 instead, and he also changed the default HTTP port of the camera to 8080.

After both steps were complete, Alex checked to make sure Martin’s port 8080 was open using a telnet command inside the terminal.  Success!  The port was open and his network was configured successfully without Martin having to do much more than relaxing and observe.

Martin’s patience and willingness to let our Technical Support Technician remote into his computer allowed him the freedom to monitor his business from a remote location over the Internet. The entire process was completed within 20 minutes.

Martin was ecstatic.  And now he can surreptitiously watch his business and all the shenanigans his employees get into when he is not around.

We were ecstatic too.

Just another example of the No-IP Remote Support team going the extra mile to provide bad ass customer service.

Are you having trouble with Port Forwarding? Give our awesome Technical Support Technicians a call today for help!

 

Still Not Using A Managed DNS Provider?

Did you know that if you are not using a managed DNS provider, it can be detrimental to your website and eCommerce? Most people register their domain and then just use the DNS that is provided by the registrar.  This technique is okay if you are a running a small personal website, small blogs, etc, but if you are a business that relies heavily on the up time of your website, you should definitely reconsider.

What will you gain if you choose to use a managed DNS provider?

1. Reliability
2. Speed- With our 11 points of presence across the globe, your users will be connected to the server that is located closest to them. This makes connecting and loading webpages on your site faster.
3. DNS failover protection
4. Money- Less downtime= more money in your pocket. Even a few minutes of downtime can end up costing you hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.
5. Redundancy- If your website is only hosted on two name servers (that are typically on the same network) when one goes down, they both will, bringing down your entire website.

But, why is a managed DNS provider better than your registrar? Typically, registrars do not have time to focus their energy on DNS, so this means that the servers they have available are are not as fast and have high TTLs (time to lives), which makes changing and updating values extremely slow.

Also, in most cases, your registrar will only give you two name servers to use and the name servers are usually on the same network, which means less redundancy (if one goes out, they both will, bringing down your entire site) and are usually hosted on over subscribed, overworked networks.

If website is your livelihood and money maker, why not have it running on premium fuel instead of regular? Check out our Plus DNS. No-IP Plus offers all of the above features for a small fraction of the cost that one outage to your website could cost. What are you waiting for?

Just Suffered an Earthquake? Make Sure Your DNS is Diversified.

As “earthquake on East Coast” and “earthquake” searches soar on Google, now is a great time to focus on the importance of having your DNS hosted in many geographically diverse locations. Companies should now be thinking about the “What-If?” scenarios.

What If:
Your DNS is only hosted in one location and mother nature decides to wake up on the wrong side of the bed?
Your website was down for an hour, a day, a week? What would this mean to your business?
Your companies email system just stopped working?

DNS is an essential part of the Internet.  If your web servers are only hosted in one location, and something happens, your entire website can be wiped out. Having DNS that is hosted in many geographically diverse locations means that even if the unthinkable happens, your customers will still be able to reach your site.

The location of DNS servers is important in ensuring 100% uptime. We deploy name servers across the globe at geographically unique datacenters using different tier 1 bandwidth providers to ensure a natural disaster or connectivity outage does not disrupt our robust DNS network. Check out No-IP Plus DNS for more information.

Have you or your business ever been affected by a DNS outage? Share your thoughts below!

[TIP] 6 Cool Ways College Students Can Use DNS

1. Research Faster and More Efficiently: Faster internet browsing for all of those last minute term papers. Sites hosted with reliable DNS will always be available when you need them most.

2. Get Better Grades: Forgot your term paper at home that’s due in 15 minutes? Don’t use the “dog ate my homework” excuse, log in to your computer from school, access your files and viola! Crisis averted.

3. Play Video Games With Your Friends From Home: Far away from all of your video game buddies from home? Wipe those tears away, because with DDNS you can run your own game server on your dynamic IP from your dorm room!

4. Be the Life of the Party: At a party with really lame music, but forgot your IPod? Be the hit of the party by accessing your entire music library on the go! (Just make sure you don’t play the YMCA.)

5. Sharing is Caring: Live in an apartment with multiple computers? Want to easily share files, music and movies? Create your own VPN server in your apartment or dorm.

6. Save Money: Food disappearing quicker than usual? Do you suspect that your roommate is secretly munching all of your Cheetos at 2am? Set up a security camera and catch the culprit red (er orange?) handed! Just make sure you keep the camera rated G by not installing them in a bathroom, bedroom, or other places where people expect privacy.

Other tips and ideas on ways college students can use DNS ? Add them below! And check out our website to learn about our awesome DNS products.

DNS, What???

More often than not, when I tell people what the company that I work for does, they look at me with a blank stare and a trivial look on their face and say DNS, What… They still seem utterly confused after I try to explain what DNS is and how they are most likely using it everyday.  These people usually just pretend like they get it and walk away, but do they really get it and what’s so hard to “get”?

We have touched on what DNS is quite a few times, but we still get the inevitable comments on surveys and blog posts that people are still very confused.  One person actually compared DNS to buying a bottle of air, open it and there is nothing inside, but that couldn’t be further from the truth!

DNS redirects an IP address, to a static domain name.  So if you want to visit www.no-ip.com, you type the domain name into your browser, not the IP address.  If not for DNS, you would have to remember every IP address of every website! With over 300 million websites on the web, remembering every IP address would be utterly impossible, well unless maybe you’re Kim Peek: The Real Rain Man.

In addition, the transition to IPv6 will make remembering IP addresses even harder! IPv6 addresses are 128 bits long compared to 32 bits of Ipv4 addresses.

They look something like this: 2001:db8:0:1234:0:567:8:1. That’s a lot if numbers to remember! (I can barely remember my phone number!)

So, next time someone asks you, WHAT the heck is DNS?! You can tell them that it is indeed more than just bottle air.  It makes visiting websites by a domain name, possible!

Have you ever had someone look at you confused when you mention DNS? Also, if you like this article, be sure to share it with your friends via Facebook and Twitter!

What is the Difference Between a CNAME Record, A Record, and Redirect?

An A record is the actual record. The name is resolved to the corresponding IP address.

An example of this is www.no-ip.com resolves to 204.16.252.112

CNAME records (short for short for canonical name) map your hostname to another hostname. It is useful for pointing many hosts to the same place and updating them easily.

An example of this is:

www.no-ip.com to www.noip.com

This is a CNAME record because even though the domains are different, they still go to exactly the same place and follow the same rules that are in place.

Redirects are like CNAME records in a way, but different.  Use a redirect if you want one domain to redirect to another.

An example of this is:

www.yourwebsite.com redirects to yourblog.blog.com

Have questions or comments about CNAME records, A records or redirects? Leave them below.

Want to know more about No-IP’s services? Check out our website to learn more.

Got Game? How to Host Your Own Game Server with No-IP

For anyone who plays video games, you are aware of the advantages of running your own game server, (not to mention how cool it will make you among your friends) but you may not know how easy it actually is.  Hosting your own video game server isn’t as daunting of a task as it may sound.  Follow these simple instructions and get started today!

1. If you haven’t already, create and activate a No-IP account.
2. Add a Host to your account

Now you’re ready to fill in the details of your new hostname. Here are the steps to deal with the items on this screen:

3. Fill in the Hostname: box with a name of your choosing. It can be anything you like. If you choose a name that’s already in use, an error will be generated and you can then try a different hostname. Since hostnames are unique per domain, you can try using the same hostname and just select a different domain from the dropdown box below to see if that combination is available.

4. Select an available domain from the dropdown box. Note that certain domains are reserved for No-IP Enhanced customers only.

5. Choose the the Host Type. The default choice, DNS Host A, is usually the correct one. Do not choose any of the other host types unless you’re trying to solve a particular problem that a DNS A record won’t accommodate. If your ISP blocks Port 80 for example, and you’re trying to run a webserver or other service on port 80, then you can choose Port 80 Redirect (at that point you’ll be asked to specify the port to use for the redirection).

6. In the field marked IP Address: you should already see your current IP address. If you wish to set the IP address of the host to be somewhere other than your current location, you can enter that address now.

7. When you have filled in the information for your new hostname, simply click the “Create Host” button at the bottom of the page to save it.

8. Download the No-IP Dynamic Update Client. (If your ISP provides you with a static IP address, you can skip this step)

9. If you use a router to connect to the internet and/or have a firewall in place on your computer, you will need to make sure that it is configured to direct the appropriate traffic from the internet into the destination machine on your network. This is done using a router function called Port Forwarding. You can use any port or whatever is specified by the game software. Just be sure that the ports match at the firewall/router. You can visit PortForward.com for step-by-step guides on port forwarding for your specific router.

10. Next, verify that your router and firewall are setup correctly, you can visit our website at www.canyouseeme.org.

11. You’re Done! As long as the port is visible and your hostname resolves back to your network you should be ready to have your friends join you online to play your favorite video game!

It is important to note that depending on which game you are playing, it will either ask for the hostname and port separately, or it will just ask for the host. You may have to have your friends connect as host.domain.com:portnumber

If you run into trouble, be sure to check our Online Support Guides for helpful information, or leave your questions and comments below!

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