No-IP is in the latest version of firmware as an integrated Dynamic DNS solution for this Cisco router, hopefully more to come soon! Cheers!

Yesterday was a big day for the Internet. CISPA (H.R. 3523) the bill that we spoke about a few weeks ago, was approved in the House by a vote of 248-168. It wasn’t even supposed to be discussed until today, which is why it’s even more shocking. The bill went through a rush vote and was quickly passed with a few minor amendments.

What does this mean? This means that the bill will now move onto the Senate for approval. If the Senate approves it, then it could still be vetoed by the President, since his advisors have already threatened to veto it.

An excerpt from that statement:

“The bill also lacks sufficient limitations on the sharing of personally identifiable information between private entities and does not contain adequate oversight or accountability measures necessary to ensure that the data is used only for appropriate purposes. Citizens have a right to know that corporations will be held legally accountable for failing to safeguard personal information adequately.”

The bill passed yesterday with some amendments, but were those amendments enough to protect us and remove the severe vagueness of the bill? I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but no, they actually do the exact opposite. The bill is even more vague and invading. The bill basically says that the 4th Amendment doesn’t apply online anymore. Ridiculous to say the least.

An excerpt from a CNET article:

“CISPA would “waive every single privacy law ever enacted in the name of cybersecurity,” Rep. Jared Polis, a Colorado Democrat and onetime Web entrepreneur, said during the debate. “Allowing the military and NSA to spy on Americans on American soil goes against every principle this country was founded on.”

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and author of CISPA, responded by telling his colleagues to ignore “all the things they’re saying about the bill that are not true.” He pleaded: “Stand for America! Support this bill!”

The amendments to the bill can be viewed here.

So, what can you do? Follow this link to quickly and easily send a message to your Senators.

I think this government needs a tune up.

Back in November 2011, 6 Estonians were arrested and charged with creating and distributing a virus to millions of computers worldwide. The virus affects the way your computer looks up the IP addresses of websites or DNS. When you type: www.no-ip.com into your browser, your computer queries your ISPs server to ask “what is the IP address for no-ip.com” in response, your ISP tells your computer what the IP address is, and your computer successfully loads that website. Well, what the “DNS Changer” Trojan does is, instead of querying your ISPs servers, your computer queries one of the malicious servers. This whole scheme was setup in order to make a ton of money on online advertising, and it worked, until the FBI caught on.

So, back in November, the FBI successfully arrested the 6 people behind the Trojan, and replaced the malicious servers with good, happy servers. The servers were only meant to stay on for 4 months, but because of the large quantity of computers suspected to be infected with the trojan and the high level of traffic they were receiving, they were left on a bit longer. Until July 9th that is, when they will be shutdown forever.  Which will cause a MAJOR headache if you are in fact, one of the unlucky ones that was infected.

So, what can you do? Well, for starters head to this site to test your DNS. If you get the green light, you are good to go, but if you get the dreaded red light, you are infected and will have to follow the additional instructions for disinfecting your computer (yeah spring cleaning bonus round!)

I wouldn’t suggest waiting either… If you are one of the unlucky ones that has been infected, it will be much easier to fix your computer now, when you actually have a working internet connection. As opposed to on July 9th when your internet is no longer working and you now have no way to get connected to the internet to download the necessary software to fix the issue.

So, take 5 seconds right now to see if you computer is infected, okay GO!

So, How many authoritative DNS queries did we resolve a day (on average) in March on our Free DNS service?

1,353,200,000

You heard us correctly! That is a whole lot of queries! The winners are:

Stefan: 1,256,000,000

Jesse Shawl: 1,472,111,289

Congrats! Email ngoguen-giveaway(at)no-ip(dot)com

Thanks and have a great weekend everyone!

In case you missed it, check out our redundant load balancing coffee table. Nerd meets metal! Sad thing is that the original MSRP on this coffee table was way above $40,000! Yeah technology!

The question of the week is:

How many authoritative DNS queries did we resolve a day (on average) in March on our Free DNS service? (3 Winners closest to the number will win. Hint: it’s a BIG number.)

Leave all answers below as a comment. Winner announced on Friday April 20th. Winners will receive a sweet No-IP Tshirt! Be sure to share this on Facebook and Twitter!

Still a free user of No-IP? 10 Reasons why you should upgrade today:

5 Reasons to Upgrade to Enhanced DNS
1. No more worries about hostnames expiring or confirming your account every
30 days.
2. More hosts! Enjoy up to 25 hosts
3. More domain choices
4. Awesome Phone Support
5. No advertising on URL redirects/port 80 redirects

5 Reasons to Upgrade to Plus DNS
1. DNS management for your very own domain (www.yourname.com)
2. Up to 50 hosts / subdomains
3. Complete control over your domain (who doesn’t love having control?)
4. Ultra-fast DNS propagation: No more waiting 24-72 hours for simple DNS updates and changes, with No-IP Plus, updates are propagated worldwide in under 1 minute!
5. Trusted Anycast Network: We have multiple nameservers anycasted across the globe, which means your website will enjoy 100% uptime.

Enjoy 30% off on upgrades! Now through the end of May with coupon code: MAYUP. Not valid on renewals or SSL certificates. Upgrade Now!
Are you already an upgraded user? Why did you upgrade?

Yes! You heard us correctly! We have 11 points of presence across the globe. Not only does this make our network ultra reliable, but it also makes it fast! Anycast DNS, which is available when you upgrade to a Plus DNS account, ensures that your website visitors visit your site at the fastest speed possible.  They will connect to to the server that is closest to them. So, if you located in Los Angeles, but your user is located in Japan, they will connect to the server in Toyko, not the server in Los Angeles. This makes connections a lot faster and it also helps for redundancy! If the power gets knocked out where you are, your website will still be available. (If you have multiple NS records enabled)

The winners of our giveaway are:
Gavin Fregona
Andrey Z
Carey McLauchlin
Barry Belford
Ian Thompson

If you are one of the above people, please email ngoguen-giveaway(at)no-ip(dot)com

CONGRATS!!

Stay tuned for more giveaways!

Just another manic Monday. Need something to cheer you up this morning? How about a giveaway? We are giving away a few Enhanced DNS upgrades and No-IP t-shirts! Just answer the following question by leaving a comment. Five winners with the correct answer will be chosen at random on Wednesday, April 11th.

Question: How many points of presence does No-IP have across the globe?

Check out these cool Easter eggs… Know one that isn’t listed? Leave it in the comments! Enjoy!

Important Dates in History
1. Open the Terminal.app. You can find it in the Applications folder > Utilities, or hit command+space bar, this will open the finder in the top right corner of your screen. Type Terminal there, and it will bring it up.
2. Paste the following into Terminal: cat /usr/share/calendar/calendar.history

The result is a list of significant dates in history, one for almost every day of the year.

Play Tetris in Terminal
The following will load a version of the game Tetris that is sure to tug at the heartstrings of every nostalgic video gamer, or kid at heart right in your Terminal!

Load Terminal (command + space bar, search for Terminal in Finder)
1. Type “emacs” hit enter/return
2. Press ESC + X at the same time
3. Type “tetris”
4. Play and Enjoy!
5. Hit control-x then control-c to exit emacs  (control-z will also work)

Play Snake in Terminal
Ah… The good old days, which mostly consisted of playing Snake on my old black and white Nokia cellphone…

Load Terminal again
1. Type “emacs” hit enter/return
2. Press ESC + X at the same time
3. Type “snake”
4. Play and Enjoy!
5. Show your children and prepare for the laughs. Dad, this is really how your video games looked?! Now, explain how when you were a kid there was hardly any time for video games and that you use to walk to school 5 miles a day up a hill in your bare feet… (not really, but just for added effect!)
6. Hit control-x then control-c to exit emacs  (control-z will also work)

Weather in Nowhere?
Head to your dashboard… If you don’t have the Weather Widget there, you can add it by hitting the plus at the bottom left of the dashboard.
Hold down Command+Option at the same time while clicking on the Sun or whatever weather icon is shown in the widget. Your city should now say Nowhere. If you continue to hold down Command+Option and click the weather icon, you can see all of the different types of weather icons that are able to be depicted.(snow, hail, sun, rain, lightening, etc.) Now you can “make it rain” whenever you want!