There are a few things that I liked about this service:
- It's free, no cost to the person using it.
- They have lots of updater clients available to use and have built in functionality with DD-WRT's router firmware (which I personally use).
- You are not limited to their choice of domain names. So, if you wanted a different domain name to use, you could purchase it and then allow them to place it in their pool of domain names for others to use.
- They do not have a requirement to "login" to their site every 30 days in order to keep your host active. As long as your update clients are working and you are not causing any harm or violating any terms, your host stays active. You "might" have to login to their site once every 6 months if there is no activity on their servers, but I am not 100% positive.
- You can have more than 2 or 3 subdomains. I am not positive on the amount of subdomains you can have, but it can be more than the other alternatives.
- Their update clients utilize a token scheme for updating. So you don't have to store/save your username/password in your settings of the client. This way you can have a really complex password and not have to worry about typing it exact. If you ever felt like your tokens have been compromised, you can safely regenerate them and then update your update clients....all without having to change your password on your account on the website.
I purchased a domain, tank-stats.com, for use with the system. I have allowed it to be used by whomever wants to use it. I just ask that it be used for something related to fish tank controllers (it doesn't have to be solely for the RA community, it could be for other controllers or uses as well). I plan on keeping the domain in their system as long as I can and as long as their is a need for it.
If you want to use it, you just need to do this:
- Goto http://freedns.afraid.org and signup for an account.
- Browse the shared registry and search for tank-stats.com
- Click on tank-stats.com to add a new subdomain
- Enter your subdomain name and put in your destination (your system's public IP should be filled in already).
- Click Save and your domain is setup.
- Then you need to click on Dynamic DNS and look for the Dynamic DNS Clients to use.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Like I said earlier, you are welcome to use this or not. It will not affect me at all. I am using it myself and will continue to use it. My main goal is to be able to provide another alternative for people to use...that's all.
If you have any concerns about the service/domain not being available in the future, hopefully my track record with this community will speak for itself and that I'm not planning on going anywhere.