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Installing and Configuring the Windows Version of the No-IP Dynamic Update Client (DUC)
The No-IP DUC is a small piece of free downloadable software that we provide; it periodically goes out on the internet and determines what your current dynamic IP address is. If a change from the previous address is detected, an update request is sent to our servers and the result is that your computer remains reachable over the internet by using your hostname rather than having to know your IP address. In this article, I'm going to go over the installation and basic configuration of the Windows® DUC so that you can get your No-IP service up and running with your dynamic IP address.
A critical component of getting your No-IP dynamic DNS service running is our ability to know what your current IP address is and to receive an update when that address changes. Without knowing what your current IP address is, it's impossible for us to translate your hostname (yourname.no-ip.com for example) to your IP address and direct internet traffic to you. This is true regardless of which service you're trying to run; be it an email server, a web server, a security camera system, etc. Without your IP address, internet traffic doesn't know where to go.
Step one is to download the software. To do so, go to our Windows® download page and select one of the download locations and when asked, save the file to your hard drive.
Locate the downloaded file on your computer and double-click on it to start the install process.
Follow the prompts; make sure to make the right choices for your own system as this guide is only an example of one possible way to customize the install.
Choose the installation directory.
Click Finish to continue on to the configuration portion of the setup.
The No-IP DUC should start up and present you with a window asking for your username and password. Enter the username/password you used
when you created your No-IP.com account. If you don't have one then click the link to sign up. This tutorial assumes you have already gone through the
the steps necessary to create and confirm an account.
After entering your information, the DUC software will retrieve the hosts from your No-IP account. If you haven't yet created any hosts, you can elect to do so by clicking on the add/remove hosts
link in the lower screen of the DUC and this will take you into your No-IP account on our site.
From your list of available hosts, select the ones that you want to be dynamically updated with this locations IP address. You select the hostnames by clicking in the box to the left of the name
with your mouse. Once you've selected the hosts, the client will immediately update the IP address of the hosts in our database with your current IP address. You can tell if this was successful
if the smiley face next to the hostnames changes from orange to yellow as seen in the images; there will also be text confirming the updates in the lower screen of the client software.
There is some customization that can be done to ensure that the client is always running when your system is online. In order to get to those options screens, push the Options button and another
window will appear that allows modifying some of the DUC settings.
If you're running Windows® XP/2000/NT and your account has Administrator privileges, you can select the "Run as a system service" option. This is the preferred way to run the client as it will run
and update your IP address automatically even if no one logs onto the machine. This is very useful for servers where there might not be anyone that routinely sees the machine; if it restarts for any reason,
the No-IP DUC will always be running.
Note: When DUC runs as a service, there's no icon in the system tray.
Alternatively, you can select the "Run on startup" option. This will only run the DUC when the current use logs onto the machine. It will not restart the client automatically if the machine reboots for
any reason and the user isn't there to logon again. This is probably a very bad choice for servers or any machine that will run unattended. The "Run at startup" option will put the No-IP DUC icon in the system tray.
While you can run both the service and startup options simultaneously, it's not necessary to do so for the software to function properly.
If you're experiencing a loss of connectivity to your server due to frequent IP address changes, one option that might be useful is to change the scheduling of updates. By default, the DUC checks for IP address changes every 30 minutes.
This is sufficient for 99.9% of our users. Most ISPs that use dynamic addressing only change the address once a day and typically less often. If you're in that rare percentage of users that finds their address changing more often
than every 30 minutes, you can modify the DUC to check for IP address changes as often as every five (5) minutes. We don't recommend changing this setting unless you find it necessary as it just creates useless and redundant network traffic if you're not experiencing a problem.
In order to modify the timing of updates, click on the Connection tab of the Options window. At the bottom you'll see a slider that can be manipulated with your mouse to change the update timing. Again, do this only if necessary to resolve a frequently changing IP address problem.
This is the basic setup for the No-IP Windows® DUC software. Feel free to explore the other options but use caution when changing settings. It's possible to configure the software in a manner that prevents it from working in your installation. Changes should only be made when necessary and only if you fully understand the change that you're making.
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