IP Update API

In case you want to dig deeper, here are the details on how our IP update API works. We provide this API to be compatible with most dynDNS clients. However, we also provide a RESTful API that is more powerful and always preferred over the legacy interface described here.

Please note that when using HTTPS (which we highly recommend), outdated setups (such as TLS < 1.2) are not supported. If you encounter SSL/TLS handshake issues, you may have to update your dynDNS client and/or libraries used by it (such as OpenSSL).

Note: Out of mercy for legacy clients (especially old routers), we still accept unencrypted requests for this service. We urge you to use HTTPS whenever possible.

Update Request

An IP update is performed by sending a GET request to update.dedyn.io via IPv4 or IPv6. To enforce a specific IP version, you can either configure your client with suitable flags (see examples below). Alternatively, for IPv6, you can also use update6.dedyn.io.

When the request is authenticated successfully, we use the connection IP address and query parameters to update your domain’s DNS A (IPv4) and AAAA (IPv6) records. The new records will have a TTL value of 60 seconds (that is, outdated values should disappear from DNS resolvers within that time).

The request path can be chosen freely as long as it does not end in .ico or .png. HTTPS is recommended over HTTP.

IP Update Authentication

You can authenticate your client in several ways. If authentication fails, the API will return a 401 Unauthorized status code.

Preferred method: HTTP Basic Authentication (with token)

Encode your username and token secret (provided during registration) in the Authorization: Basic ... header. This is the method virtually all dynDNS clients use out of the box.

Important: If your dynDNS client asks for a password, do not enter your account password (if you have one). Instead, enter your token!

HTTP Token Authentication

Send an Authorization: Token  ... header along with your request, where ... is the token secret issued at registration (or manually created later).

Query string method (discouraged)

Set the username and password query string parameters (GET ?username=...&password=...).

Important: We strongly discourage using this method as it comes with a subtle disadvantage: We log all HTTP request URLs for a few days to facilitate debugging. As a consequence, this method will cause your token secret to end up in our log files in clear text. The method is provided as an emergency solution where folks need to deal with old and/or crappy clients. If this is the case, we suggest looking for another client.

Determine Hostname

To update your IP address in the DNS, our servers need to determine the hostname you want to update. To determine the hostname, we try the following steps until there is a match:

  • hostname query string parameter, unless it is set to YES (this sometimes happens with dynDNS update clients).
  • host_id query string parameter.
  • The username as provided in the HTTP Basic Authorization header.
  • The username as provided in the username query string parameter.
  • After successful authentication (no matter how), the only hostname that is associated with your user account (if not ambiguous).

If we cannot determine a hostname to update, the API returns a status code of 400 Bad Request (if no hostname was given but multiple domains exist in the account) or 404 Not Found (if the specified domain was not found).

Subdomains

The dynDNS update API can also be used to update IP records for subdomains. To do so, make sure that in the above list of steps, the first value provided contains the full domain name (including the subdomain).

Example: Your domain is yourdomain.dedyn.io, and you’re using HTTP Basic Authentication. In this case, replace your authentication username with sub.yourdomain.dedyn.io. Similarly, if you use the hostname query parameter, it needs to be set to the full domain name (including subdomain).

To update more than one domain name, please see Updating multiple domains.

Determine IP Address(es)

The last ingredient we need for a successful update of your DNS records is your IPv4 and/or IPv6 addresses, for storage in the A and AAAA records, respectively.

For IPv4, we check the query string parameters myip, myipv4, ip (in this order) for IPv4 addresses to record in the database. Multiple IP addresses may be given as a comma-separated list. When the special string preserve is provided instead, the configuration on record (if any) will be kept as is. If none of the parameters is set, the connection’s client IP address will be used if it is an IPv4 connection; otherwise the IPv4 address will be deleted from the DNS. IP deletion can also be forced by providing an empty value (e.g. myipv4=).

For IPv6, the procedure is similar. We check the myipv6, ipv6, myip, ip query string parameters (in this order) and the IP that was used to connect to the API for IPv6 addresses and use the first one found. Both the multi-IP syntax and the preserve rule apply as above. If nothing is found or an empty value provided, the AAAA record will be deleted.

When using the myip parameter, a mixed-type list of both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses may be given.

Update Response

If successful, the server will return a response with status 200 OK and good as the body (as per the dyndns2 protocol specification). For error status codes, see above.

dynDNS updates are subject to rate limiting. For details, see Rate Limits.

Examples

The examples below use <your domain> as the domain which is to be updated (which could be a custom domain or a dedyn.io domain like yourdomain.dedyn.io) and <your token secret> as an API token affiliated with the respective account (see Manage Tokens for details.) 1.2.3.4 is used as an example for an IPv4 address, fd08::1234 as a stand-in for an IPv6 address. Replace those (including the < and >) with your respective values.

Basic authentication with automatic IP detection (IPv4 or IPv6):

curl --user <your domain>:<your token secret> https://update.dedyn.io/

curl https://update.dedyn.io/?hostname=<your domain> \
  --header "Authorization: Token <your token secret>"

Basic authentication with forced use of IPv4 (will remove IPv6 address from the DNS):

curl --ipv4 https://update.dedyn.io/?hostname=<your domain> \
  --header "Authorization: Token <your token secret>"

Basic authentication with forced use of IPv6 (will remove IPv4 address from the DNS):

curl --ipv6 https://update.dedyn.io/?hostname=<your domain> \
  --header "Authorization: Token <your token secret>"

curl --user <your domain>:<your token secret> https://update6.dedyn.io/

Basic authentication with simultaneous update of IPv4 and IPv6:

curl --user <your domain>:<your token secret> \
  "https://update.dedyn.io/?myipv4=1.2.3.4&myipv6=fd08::1234"

curl "https://update6.dedyn.io/?hostname=<your domain>&myipv4=1.2.3.4&myipv6=fd08::1234" \
  --header "Authorization: Token <your token secret>"