Using Your Domain Name with Dynamic DNS
Dynamic DNS is a fairly simple idea that's been around for some time & it allows people to run publicly-accessible network servers without the need for a static IP. This has many potential applications: developers who run a testbed server in their office/home, providing staff without out-of-office access to their work computer or other network resources (in situations where a VPN would be overkill), etc.
Unfortunately, dynamic DNS providers typically offer you one of two options: free service where you can only choose a sub-domain, which will hang off another domain (E.g. yourdomain.dyndns.org). Or if you want to use your own domain name, then there's usually a recurring fee - it also requires running DNS for the entire domain through the dynamic DNS service. With that setup, your website and/or EMail could go offline during IP address changes - even if those are hosted elsewhere.
But there is a solution that gets around both sets of problems - read on for the details.
This guide is very general; it's more of a general strategy than a step-by-step guide, mainly because the exact steps will depend on your hosting/DNS provider. But if you're familiar with creating and editing DNS records, then you should have no trouble adapting this to your particular setup.
You need three things for this to work: a domain name, control of the DNS settings for your domain name (usually available through your hosting provider and/or domain registrar), and an account with a dynamic DNS service (E.g. https://www.dnsdynamic.org/). Add a domain to your dynamic DNS account, from one of the free options - this will give you "dynamic" domain that looks something like "mydomain.user32.com". You'll probably also want to install a dynamic DNS client on your computer, so the dynamic domain gets automatically updated when your IP address changes.
Next, edit the DNS settings for your "real" domain. Keeping with the example above, your dynamic domain would be something like "mydomain.user32.com" - and the "real" domain would be something like "mydomain.com". All you need to do is create a CName (alias) record under your real domain and point it at your dynamic domain - for example, the CName could be called "office.mydomain.com". And that's it, the domain names "office.mydomain.com" and "mydomain.user32.com" would be essentially interchangeable, giving you the best of both worlds: free dynamic DNS, using your own domain name.
