DynDNS update script

I recommend using the ddclient utility to update your hostname when using a dynamic IP address with http://www.dyndns.org/ or similar services.

Old notes

I wrote the following script on my Red Hat Linux system to update my dyndns.org hostname when my dynamically-assigned IP address changes. The script makes use of nslookup, lynx, and dyndnsupdate.

Since I am using Network Address Translation with my router, and am using a private class C IP address internally, I use the http://whatismyip.com/ Web site to determine my external (router's) IP address.

I am also running BIND as a caching nameserver; I restart BIND when my IP address changes to clear the DNS cache.

Since my IP address changed very infrequently, I am using DynDNS' "static DNS."

#!/bin/sh

# This script uses "dyndnsupdate" available at http://www.bebits.com/app/2927

# HOSTNAME is your DynDNS hostname
HOSTNAME=your_hostname.dyndns.org

# NSLOOKUP is the current DNS entry for your DynDNS hostname
NSLOOKUP=`/usr/bin/nslookup -sil $HOSTNAME | tail -2 | head -1 | cut -d" " -f2`

# CURRENT_IP is your router's current IP
CURRENT_IP=`/usr/bin/lynx -dump http://www.netins.net/dialup/tools/my_ip.shtml | grep -A2 "Your current IP Address is:" | tail -n1 | tr -d ' '`

# Is CURRENT_IP returning "unknown"?
if [ "$CURRENT_IP" = "unknown" ] ; then
   exit
fi

# Is our current IP in the DynDNS DNS records? If not, update them.
if [ "$NSLOOKUP" != "$CURRENT_IP" ] ; then
   /sbin/dyndnsupdate -a $CURRENT_IP -h your_hostname.dyndns.org -m \
   your_hostname's_mail_exchange.dyndns.org -s statdns \
   -u dyndns.org_username:dyndns.org_password
   # Flush local DNS cache of $HOSTNAME
   /sbin/service named restart
fi

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DynDNS update script

Old notes

Last modified: 01/26/2004